Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word. This Sunday’s study text is entitled “Lest We Forget” and it is based on Deuteronomy 8:1-11.
The Book of Deuteronomy can be described as God’s servant Moses last words to the people he has been charged with beginning to the land of Canaan.
After their forty year journey in the wilderness, they stood on the brink of entering the land God had promised their fathers to give them. Moses, knowing he could not go with them any further, wanted to give them his words of encouragement and warning before they departed ways.
As we read the chapter and verses in this book, it is important to keep in mind the situation and Moses’ motivation for writing what has been recorded. In the study text today, Moses begins by insisting that they heed to everything he tells them in order for them to be successful in the new land they are going to.
He asks them to remember how they survived for the past forty years in the wilderness and why they had spent so much time there. Most, if not all of them, had lived most of their life in the wilderness and were now about to go into a new land.
He reminded them of the providential care of God and their need to trust Him for their survival. He explains that God disciplined them as a loving father disciplines the child He loves. His discipline was for their good and to cause them to fear or respect the Lord. Moses tells them that all God did and they experienced was to prepare them for the land He was about to give them.
Then Moses began to describe the land they were going to. The description of the land was as good as any could be on the earth and for a people who had nothing and who were only a generation removed from Egyptian bondage.
After his description of the land, Moses gives them a stern warning. He tells them not to forget to bless their benefactor after they have received the blessing provided by the land. The implication being they shall loose and be cut off from the source of their blessing.
And despite Moses’s urgent plea and warning, generations that followed this generation that experiences the hardship in the wilderness and had heard Moses speak, as things got better, they did exactly what Moses had warned them against.
People living today have come out of a wilderness of sorts. People around the world, but especially in places like the United States, are only a few generations from poverty and peasantry. It has not been that long ago when there was no electric power, no indoor plumbing, no insulated houses, gas powered automobiles and many more things we all take for granted now and enjoy.
Yet, the easier and convenient people’s lives become, the less and less they thank God and worship Him. In another part of Deuteronomy, he warns them against saying they got all these things by their own hands without the Lord. This is what they did and this is what people are telling themselves and each other today.
There are consequences for disrespecting and not fearing God. The Israelites found that out and a rebellious and ungrateful mankind shall find this out once again.
Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study. If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link.
You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890. If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday. So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
