Debt to your brother and releasing that debt

Debt to your brother and releasing that debt

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 1 "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts.2 "This is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because the Lord's remission has been proclaimed.3

 "From a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother.4 "However, there will be no poor among you, since the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,5 if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.6 "For the Lord your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.7 "If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother;8 but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.9 "Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, 'The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,' and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you.10 "You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.11 "For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.'
Deut 15:1-11 (NASB)

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This year of release typified the grace of the gospel, in which is proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord; and by which we obtain the release of our debts, that is, the pardon of our sins. The law is spiritual, and lays restraints upon the thoughts of the heart.
 —Matthew Henry Concise
As the Israelites went from slaves, to rightful heirs of the promised land, the Lord recognized that greed and callousness to ones fellow brother would become a problem, without clear commandments on what behavior to exhibit and which to prohibit.  The promised land is sufficient provision for all God's people, and therefore non should be without.   He command them lend to their brothers in need, and then every seventh year forgive that debt.   It set up the precedence for the grace shown by Christ, who paid for our debt, even though we did not need to wait for the seventh year, but merely accept his free will offering.    In some ways the scripture gives us a clear vision of God's kingdom, one in which all needs are provided for, and no one is debt to anyone, but simply all fellowship as one, in worship of the Lord our God.

A -  The application for me is to recognize that I can start living the kingdom here on earth, as it is in heaven today, if I would lend freely to my brother, and forgive quickly any debts that I might hold over others.   It is an assured way to stay close to God, and protect my heart from the ways of the world.  

P -  Dear heavenly Father thank you for today's lesson, may it be sealed to my heart.  Lord show me any debts I have not forgiven, and help me to release my hand on them.  Show me my brothers needs, and the provision through me which you have provided.   I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.

The old covenant purpose for tithes

The old covenant purpose for tithes

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22 "You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow, which comes out of the field every year.23 "You shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God, at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.24 Deut 14:22-24 (NASB)

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A second portion from the produce of their land was required. The whole appointment evidently was against the covetousness, distrust, and selfishness of the human heart. It promoted friendliness, liberality, and cheerfulness, and raised a fund for the relief of the poor. They were taught that their worldly portion was most comfortably enjoyed, when shared with their brethren who were in want. If we thus serve God, and do good with what we have, it is promised that the Lord our God will bless us in all the works of our land
   —Matthew Henry Concise

The purpose of this section is not so much to give a comprehensive statement of the tithe law as to guard tithing procedure from being prostituted to idolatrous ends; that is, to prevent Israel from honoring the Canaanite fertility deities for their harvests
  —Wycliffe Bible Commentary, The

So much of the old testament laws appeared confusing to me before because of their arbitrariness, but after a new approach and perspective, one that comes from recognizing the who the Israelites were as they were about to enter the promised land.  They were a people freed from slavery, who had wandered the desert for 40 years, and were prone to taking on the culture of the people amongst which they lived.   They were also God's people, children of the covenant with Abraham, and in order for them to remain in close relationship with the Lord as they entered the promised land, he needed them to stay close.  These laws and the level of detail specificity were God designed to keep them focused on Him and not become distracted by the rituals of the Canaanites who culture was opposite to that of God's people.
 -  my commentary

A -  The application for me is to recognize, while I am not under the old covenant anymore, the principles remain.  I am saved by Grace, and mercy of Christ sacrifice.  I no longer need to offer sacrifices for my sin.   I am filled with the Holy Spirit, so He is strong enough in me to help me resist the rituals of the nations/culture around me.   I honor God with more than a tithe of what I produce, I honor Him with giving all I am to Him for His purposes.    The Israelite nature inside of me is fading each day I walk with God in my life, but it is still very possible for me to get lost in the culture of this world, and to forget to honor and give Glory to God for all that I have and all that I am.  

P -  So my prayer is this, Lord refresh and remind me of the new covenant promise you have made with me because of the work of your son on the cross.  Remind me of the chains that have broken, the freedom from the ways of the world, and the transformation of my nature from the old to the new.   Lord keep me ever mindful of the impact of the culture surround me, and the nature of my flesh, and keep my heart ever thankful and in remembrance of were my strength and provision come from.  I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.

Guarding heart and mind when entering a period of provision

Guarding heart and mind when entering a period of provision

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13 "It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul,14 that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil.15 "He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.16 "Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them.17 "Or the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.18 "You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.19 "You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.20 "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,21 so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth.22 "For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him,23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.24    Deut 11:13-24 (NASB)
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Let all be directed by the three rules here given. 1. Let our hearts be filled with the word of God. There will not be good practices in the life, unless there be good thoughts, good affections, and good principles in the heart. 2. Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God, having constant regard to it as the guide of our way, as the rule of our work, Ps 119:30. 3. Let our tongues be employed about the word of God. Nor will any thing do more to cause prosperity, and keeping up religion in a nation, than the good education of children.
—Matthew Henry Concise

(My observation)   The Lord is really preparing the people of Israel for what is sure to be a challenge before them, but it is not what the Israelites might think it is going to be.  The battle is within themselves, and not with those who possess the land which they are to claim, nor is their challenge going to be providing food, shelter and good life for themselves in this new land.  The real challenge ahead lies with their own nature that as the physical needs become met, causes their dependence, obedience and love for God to recede.  The Lord identifies for them the challenge and then offers them the solution.  To keep His word deeply in their hearts, obey the commandments He has given, they will protect the head and heart from straying.  The second part of the solution is to spend your time serving the Lord, this will also keep you close to Him, but prevent you from focusing on serving yourself , or becoming self serving,  this is the path to separation.   When focusing on the Lord, He will be the Israelites full provision;  he forewarns though He will not suffer wandering, and the fountain of provision will be shut down at signs of wandering.

A -  The application for me is understand the guidance of the Lord for the people of Israel as it applies to my life and my family.  I know the Lord continues to prepare me for entering the promised Land, I like the people of Israel am on the doorstep and about to enter but there are some precautionary notes to be payed attention to.
1.  Be aware of physical provisions ability to distract me from my love of and dependence on God.  As my life becomes more comfortable in the promised land, God providing for my every need,  the temptation to want and strive for more, or to be less than satisfied with His provision will be there.  I need to resist this by recognizing His provision, being thankful for it, and satisfied with it.
2.  I need to guard my mind from wandering from His commandments.  The world's draw to set new values and expectations on me, or my own tendency to "take control" of  my life, can draw me away from the Lord's commandments.  I must stay aligned with Him, through impressing His word into my heart daily.  

P - Dear heavenly Father, thank you for today's lesson, may it be sealed to my heart.  I pray Lord that you would continue to transform my heart, mind, and soul to be a true follower and child of God.  I thank you Lord for your abundant provision in my life, I pray your word would transform me and be impressed upon my heart a spirit of satisfaction and obedience,  that I might not wander from you and your ways.   I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.

The great commandment for God's people

The great commandment for God's people

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12 "Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,13 and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?14 "Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.15 "Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.16 "So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.17 "For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.18 "He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.19 "So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.20 "You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.21 "He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.22

Deut 10:12-22 (NASB)

O -  God's common gifts to mankind oblige us to honour all men. And those who have themselves been in distress, and have found mercy with God, should be ready to show kindness to those who are in the like distress. We are here taught our duty to ourselves. Circumcise your hearts. Cast away all corrupt affections and inclinations, which hinder you from fearing and loving God. By nature we do not love God. This is original sin, the source whence our wickedness proceeds; and the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, Rom 8:5-9. Let us, without delay or reserve, come and cleave to our reconciled God in Jesus Christ, that we may love, serve, and obey him acceptably, and be daily changed into his image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. Consider the greatness and glory of God; and his goodness and grace; these persuade us to our duty

  —Matthew Henry Concise

True fear and true love are complementary and inseparable. They are the response of a true heart to God's majesty and goodness, respectively, and together they are productive of wholehearted service in obedience to all God's good pleasure. 16. Circumcise... your heart. Such genuine devotion can flow only from a heart that has experienced the reality of that qualification which was symbolized in the initiatory sign of the covenant (cf. 30:6; Ex 6:12, 30; Lev 26:41; Jer 6:10; 9:25, 26).

   —Wycliffe Bible Commentary, The

(my observation)

  Final preparations for being God's people.  These verses above are repeated (or at least the same heart is) throughout the scriptures, and Jesus finally made this conclusion when asked by a pharisee what is the greatest commandment,   and Jesus replied "to love the Lord, your God, with all your hearts, minds, souls and strength;  and to love your brother as yourself".     This is the "Great commandment",  and it was not simply so because Jesus said it was, it was God's message to His people from the beginning. Here we see Moses replanting that message in the heart of the people of Israel as they get ready to enter the promised land.   

A -   The application for me is to recognize in my relationship with God I am am to fear Him for who He is , is beyond all comprehension, is knowledge, and strength are above all,  He is an awesome God. This fear is one of high reverence to one supremely superior, and not a worrisome fear.    I am to love God, because He loved me first.  He has shown me mercy, and love that I did not earn, nor deserve, and out of humble response I am to love him by my attitudes, words, and actions.  All that said, in order to love God I must start loving like God, with mercy, grace, and unconditionally my fellow man.  

P - Dear heavenly Father, thank you for your discipleship, through your word and your spirit.  I pray Lord that I would continue to grow in your ways, that you would transform me more and more to live my life like your son Jesus.   I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.

Guarding against the prideful nature when entering the promised land

Guarding against the prideful nature when entering the promised land

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You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you.17 "I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes.18 "I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger.19 "For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me that time also.20 "The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.21 "I took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.22 "Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath.23 "When the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, 'Go up and possess the land which I have given you,' then you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; you neither believed Him nor listened to His voice.24 "You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you.25 "So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights, which I did because the Lord had said He would destroy you.26 "I prayed to the Lord and said, 'O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.27 

Deut 9:16-27 (NASB)

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All whom God rejects, are rejected for their own wickedness; but none whom he accepts are accepted for their own righteousness. Thus boasting is for ever done away: see Eph 2:9, 11, 12

That the Israelites might have no pretence to think that God brought them to Canaan for their righteousness, Moses shows what a miracle of mercy it was, that they had not been destroyed in the wilderness. It is good for us often to remember against ourselves, with sorrow and shame, our former sins; that we may see how much we are indebted to free grace, and may humbly own that we never merited any thing but wrath and the curse at God's hand. For so strong is our propensity to pride, that it will creep in under one pretence or another. We are ready to fancy that our righteousness has got for us the special favour of the Lord, though in reality our wickedness is more plain than our weakness. But when the secret history of every man's life shall be brought forth at the day of judgment, all the world will be proved guilty before God. At present, One pleads for us before the mercy-seat, who not only fasted, but died upon the cross for our sins; through whom we may approach, though self-condemned sinners, and beseech for undeserved mercy and for eternal life, as the gift of God in Him. Let us refer all the victory, all the glory, and all the praise, to Him who alone bringeth salvation.

—Matthew Henry Concise

     This is the tragic misinterpretation of the conquest events to which Israel would be prone in defiance of all the obvious historic facts and God's explicit warning to the contrary. The explanation of Israel's triumph could lie only in the wickedness of the Canaanites on the one side (vv. 4c, 5) and in God's forgiving grace to Israel on the other (9:6-10:11). For the relationship of the iniquity of the inhabitants of Canaan to the fulfillment of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant, see Gen 15:16. Archaeological investigation has revealed the abysmal depths of moral degeneration in Canaanite society and religion in the Mosaic age. The way in which Israel's acquisition of their promised land was bound up with the elimination of the Canaanites exemplifies the principle of redemptive judgment. The salvation of the friends of God necessarily involves their triumph over the friends of Satan. From the viewpoint of the elect, the judgment of the latter is a redemptive judgment (e.g., Rev 19:11 ff.; 20:9, where the redemption of the elect is consummated by the doom of the Satanic hordes).

   More than once judgment had been averted through the intercession of Moses. In this aspect of Moses' ministry, more remarkably than in any other, his mediatorship prefigured the antitypical mediatorship of Christ, who also "made intercession for the transgressors" (Isa 53:12). When at Sinai God threatened to blot out Israel and offered to exalt Moses' descendants as a new covenant nation (Deut 9:14; cf. Ex 32:10), Moses faithfully fulfilled his mediatorial office in behalf of Israel rather than grasp at the opportunity to be a second Abraham. In fact, he offered himself as a second Isaac on the altar. Moses pleaded that if there must be a blotting out, rather than being made the one exception to the judgment, he might be blotted out as a means of securing forgiveness for the others (Ex 32:32). He "stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them" (Ps 106:23). The intercession referred to in Deut 9:18, 19, 25-29 (cf. 10:10) was offered during Moses' second forty days on the mount.

—Wycliffe Bible Commentary

(my commentary)

Certainly the preparation phase immediately prior to entering the promised land, consisted of a great deal of reflection by Moses for the people of Israel, to ensure they where entering knowing it was God's grace and not their own righteousness that got them there.   The necessary journey and transformation of God's people from slaves in Egypt's to children of God entering His covenant both physically and spiritual.   The season of transformation was coming to end and now a season of claiming is ahead.  The warning here is somber, that desert time has proven the Israelites nature, to pridefully forget God as their source of provision and salvation, and to sin against His ordinances,  and only through the intercession of Moses and periods of prayer and fasting are they allowed to continue, still feeling in cases God's discipline, but never being fully disqualified.  More and more it is revealed that both the promised land and God's grace are in no way a result of Israelites good works or righteousness, but instead came purely from God's love, grace, and committment to His promises.

A  - The application for my life is to recognized the season I am entering to in I need to reflect on my arrival here is because of two factors.   The first factor is God's grace and mercy covered my past sins, and brought me here despite my efforts and not because of them.   For me the sin has been one of anger and rebellion against authority and against others, and in some cases against God.   Jesus'  intercession on the Cross has made it possible for me today to enter the promised land, because, like Moses, he intercedes on my behalf, and has already paid the price for my sins.   The second factor is the wicked that still lives in the world.  He saved me for a purpose, and I must recognize my victories in the promised land are not because of me but rather because of the sinful ways of the world which God truly desires and will wipe out.   Practically all of this means that I must be aware of pride in my life, pride that I am all that I am because of my own efforts, and pride that my success comes from my hard work.   When it comes to God's kingdom work there is very little room for or need for pride.   God wins in the end, we are on his team, so if we know we are on the winning team during the game, do we really need to puff ourselves up, or should we humble ourselves and give all the glory to God?

P -  Dear heavenly Father, thank you for this study on man's prideful nature.   Lord I pray you would gently guide me through riding my self of prideful thoughts, actions, and attitudes that live in me.   I thank you Lord for your grace and mercy, I owe you everything, and have nothing to offer in return other than my love, and dedication to a growing relationship with you.   I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.