Rewards and Dealings - Daily Devotional June 3rd, 2010

Bible Reading - Deuteronomy 7, Psalm 90, Isaiah 35, Revelation 5

Rewards and Dealings

Deuteronomy 7 is such a powerful picture of how God rewards the righteous but deals with the wicked. It is also a powerful warining of what happens when we choose not to do things His way and choose to do our own. How we are dealt with and how future generation will life is directly correlated to the choices we make and whether or not we obey God or not. Lets take a look at a portion of chapter 7.

Deuteronomy 7:1-11, "When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, (2) and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. (3) You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, (4)for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. (5)But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire. (6)For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. (7)It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, (8)but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (9) Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, (10)and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. (11) You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today".

The rewards in this passage of scripture are obvious. The Lord will go before the children of Israel and clear away all there enemy's so that they can go and in and posses their promise land. When the Lord goes in and begins to clear out the enemy He asks two things of His people. 1) Do not take the any possession's that belong to them, 2) do not have intimate relationships with them. If they are to fulfill the righteous requirements that are set before them and utterly destroy the things that God is clearing out of the way than God will continue to reward them and be with them. If they fail to do this God removes His covering and rewards and begins to deal with them as He does with the wicked. This is the rewards for the righteous and the dealings with the wicked.

This word given to the people of God then is the same word given to His people today. Sure the methodology may look different but the principle is exactly the same. God asks us not to have intimate/marriage relationships with unbelievers and He asks us not to covet the things of the world. Not only is the challenge the same today but the reasons are the same as well. The reason God challenged the children of Israel to make sure that they observed and did these two thins is because once His people began to covet the possessions of the enemy it would begin to turn their hearts affection towards their idols and god's rather than Him. Likewise if His people began to intermarry with those who did not worship Him then the foundation of their family would not be on trust in Him but trust in many other god's and ideas. This same thing is true today and the fact that people are not adhering to God's principles is seen in the very statistic that our nation that was founded on the freedom to worship The Lord Jesus Christ is now only 4% Christian.

God always has had and always will have reasons for the principles He lays out for us. Those principles are not up for debate or further discussion. They are there not only to protect us and bless us. They are there to protect future generations so that His name will continue to be praised and blessed. When we walk according to His principles it is not always easy but it is always rewarding because He rewards the righteous (those who obey His principles) and deals with the wicked by cutting them off and ultimately destroying them.

Christian, are you listening to the Word of God today or are you be lead by your emotions? Are you coveting things of the world and are you getting involved in relationships that are leading your affections away? Meditate on Deuteronomy 7 today and know that the momentary pleasures of all the worlds stuff and the emotional tug from that person that does not worship God will ultimately destroy you and the generations to come.

Lets all head the admonishment of this passage today so that we can reap the rewards and not the dealings of God.

Tomorrows Bible Reading - Deuteronomy 8, Psalm 91, Isaiah 36, Revelation 6

Dream Big
Ben