Deuteronomy 11

Bind, or be Bound

Recently, I have been studying a lot about parenting teens. Since my study is more out of desperation than out of a search for enlightenment, I am studying the topic deeply and with a lot of thought. In Dad In The Mirror, Pat Morley, uses Deuteronomy chapter 11 as one of the pillars for the premise of the book. Deuteronomy 11 begins, "Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. 2 Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; 3 the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt…" Then it describes some of the miracles performed by God as He delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh, and continues, "7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done."

I am fairly certain that none of us, living today, were delivered from slavery to the Pharaoh in Egypt, led through a wilderness, and into a glorious land flowing with milk and honey. However, all of us were similarly slaves to sin and the consequences it held. Now, we are freed, but wandering in the wilderness of Earth. We are waiting for the Promised Land, following the guidance of the Holy Spirit like a pillar of smoke and fire, trusting Him to lead us to the place where we are prepared to receive the blessing of admittance to the New Heaven and the New Earth. Deuteronomy continues, "8 Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 9 and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey." That land, which became Jerusalem, was promised to the children of God. He delivered them from their bondage, marched them around for forty years, until He felt they were ready, and then sent them to receive their reward. Fast forward to Revelation 21:2, "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband." The messenger of the Lord told John to write these words in Revelation 3: 19, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent….21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." So the parallel can be drawn between slavery to Pharaoh and slavery to sin; the wilderness of Egypt and the wilderness of our world today; the Promised Land of the Israelites, and the New Jerusalem.

I recently was engaged in a conversation about what salvation is. The question seemed a simple one, but those in my company seemed to have difficulty coming up with an answer. To some, "salvation" is a free pass, sort of a "get out of Hell free" card. It means, that on my journey down the rapids of life, somebody somewhere pulled me onto shore before I reached certain death over a perilous fall that I was fast approaching downstream somewhere. Most can relate to that. It is simply understood. After all, salvation means the condition of being saved. Swiped from some fatal destruction. Put simply in the words of Forrest Gump, salvation means to some, "I’m going to Heaven, Lieutenant Dan!"

Salvation, however, is a little bit more than just being marked to escape the final condemnation. It means being rescued from the bondage to sin and its consequences. In this particular point in history, we are caught between slavery and reward, but our status is "freed." We are freed from the bondage that comes with separation from God. Romans 6: 6 says, "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." Paul, in the same chapter warns that we are not automatically made sinless. We merely have the keys to the gates and are free to walk out and distance ourselves from the sin-prison on a daily basis. Romans 6:1, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" In other words, "Why revisit an empty prison when Christ already broke you out?" Romans 6:14, "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." So, being "saved" is more than just being heaven-bound; it is just as much a present-tense state of freedom as it applies to today.

I have drawn this parallel between Israel’s wilderness and our own, to point out that the truth, and therefore the instruction, applies to the parallel, just as it did to the Israelites. We all have our bondage and wilderness experiences, even within our "saved" lives. We backslide and fall away, slipping a chain around our waist, easing a shackle over our ankles, tethering ourselves to "just a small, little" sin. Then, when we become aware of our predicament, we once again claim the mercy of Jesus, and the bonds fall off as quickly as we turn back to Him. Since the Israelites were instructed to share the experience with their children, we should not shirk our own responsibility to do likewise. It is imperative that we share our experiences with those we would teach, most of all our children, but also our brothers and sisters. II Cor. 1:4, "…so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." If we are called to be ministers of peace, then it is our duty to share whatever wisdom we have learned with those around us who might benefit from it.

Too often we are content living our quiet Christian lives, with silent prayers and discreet ceremony. Far too frequently we bend to the fickle ways of today in the name of political correctness, sharing our testimony with a dose of apology, or devotion with a side of excuse. God commanded his people, Deut. 11:18 "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth."

Why share our failures? Why admit our shortcomings? Far be it from any of us to sit when the Lord sends, or to remain silent when He has entrusted us with a message! The truth of the wilderness is that not everyone makes it into the promised land, not even all the freed ones. Moses did not even get to enter into that land, but was succeeded by Joshua, who, upon reaching the promised land gave this announcement, which seems an appropriate closing:
Joshua 24:14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."