Once Upon A Time

Scripture:
Deuteronomy 1:1 — These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab.
 
Observation:
YYAAAAWWWWNNNNNN!! Just reading this first verse wears me out. All these place names and dates and people groups. Man, what a snoozer. The first couple of books of Deuteronomy is simply a retelling of the plight of the people of Israel. It is basically just a thumbnail sketch of what took long chapters in earlier books to convey. As I read these verses it just feels like another story. It really doesn’t even seem real – more like a sort of made up “Lord of the Rings” type of a saga. For me it is difficult to remember that this is the story of real people in real situations. I mean as I read some of these Old Testament stories I am just amazed at how hard headed and stupid the people of Israel were. There they were right at the point of going into the Promised Land and they chicken out and tick God off in the process. What faithless losers. But, remember that these are real flesh and blood people. So what if my wife, our three boys and I were in that crowd? Let’s just suppose that all we had known up to this point was slavery in Egypt? We had left the only life we had ever known and now we were facing a huge army and Moses tells us to that God wants us to go and take the land by force. Good grief, all I’ve ever done is make bricks and God wants me to go take a land away from an army. You have got to be kidding? It just isn’t logical. It’s well…crazy is what it is.
 
Application:
All of a sudden it seems a little more real now. Maybe I can understand why the people of Israel were so boneheaded after all. But what about today? A lot of people would say that they have never been in that situation or known anybody that has. Here is a question: Could it be that the reason that we have never been in a situation that would require us to do something that seems so ridiculous is because we never have left the land of our slavery? The people of Israel were never asked to walk in that level of faith while in Egypt. In Egypt they were in bondage. It was only in a state of freedom that God expected them to do such outlandish things.
 
Prayer:
God help me to live in your freedom so that I will be asked to so something for your kingdom that appears to be totally insane by the eyes of the world. And in that moment may I not hesitate to do something “crazy” for you. Amen.
 
— Darren Miley, student pastor