The Lesson today will be “old news” to many of you.

But to others, a “fresh breath of air!”

It’s a warning really, today’s Bible Text.

One that helps “protect” the Word of God.

A warning that’s repeated elsewhere in Scripture as well!

“What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt NOT ADD thereto, NOR DIMINISH from it.” That’s God Himself speaking, Deuteronomy 12:32, that chapter’s last verse.

Obey God’s Word, God’s Law, God’s Direction for life. (The Hebrew verb “observe to do” is “shamar,” meaning “to guard or protect!” Hence, “heed” 35 times in the King James Bible.

Obey the various “charges, orders” God has given us!

But further admonition is also given … “Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”

Wow!

Don’t “tamper” with any of God’s Words! (The verb “tamper” is much like the verb “temper,” meaning to “meddle, interfere.” Here’s one of its earliest definitions, or examples: “to work in clay, etc., so as to mix it thoroughly.”)

In Hebrew “add” (spelled “yasaph” and the root of the name “Joseph) means “to increase” something. To “exceed” its limits. Do not go beyond what God has declared!

In fact, the “eye for eye” and “tooth for tooth” regulations of Scripture (as in Exodus 21:24, for example) are limiting the field of punishment, not draconically enforcing them! If a man even accidentally blinds one eye … you cannot then in turn blind both his eyes! Just “one” for “one.” To do more would be “adding” to God’s Word. Taking it further than God intended!

And “diminishing” the Bible?

The word is “gara” in Hebrew, meaning “to clip!” Or “to take away.” To make “smaller!” In other words, do not try to “restrain” the Word of God! Paul often prayed that the Word, when he preached, would be unrestrained. That Scripture would have “free course” (a Greek verb meaning “to run without hindrance”) and be “glorified!”  See 2nd Thessalonians 3:1 for proof.

Now, let’s put our Text verse together again: “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”

A requirement so important God repeats it elsewhere in the Bible!

Back in Deuteronomy 4:2, the very Book we’re studying now. “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” (By the way, using the very same verbs we just noticed, “yasaph” and “gara.”)

Then notice Proverbs 30:5-6. “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. ADD THOU NOT unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”

Finally (unless I have missed some) Revelation 22:18-19. “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall ADD unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall TAKE AWAY from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Maybe the strongest warning of all!

Need I say anything else today?

God’s Word, all sufficient … without any changing made by man!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

The level of devotion God craves?

Is He satisfied if we merely acknowledge Him in our lives?

Paying Him “token” lip service from time to time?

Or does He want more, in fact … demand more?

In order to receive God’s very BEST day by day, to benefit from His constant servings of GRACE … it is highly recommended that a Believer in the Lord God Almighty obey Him energetically!

As in Deuteronomy 11:22. “For if ye SHALL DILIGENTLY KEEP all these commandments which I command you, TO DO them, TO LOVE the LORD your God, TO WALK in all his ways, and TO CLEAVE unto him ….” Look at that string of verbs!

Here “shall diligently keep,” that verb, is translated this way in the Hebrew Text: “shamar shamar!” The verb is doubled, for emphasis! It means “to hear and obey” then “to hear and obey” some more!

“To do,” an infinitive, means (“asah” in Hebrew) “to accomplish” God’s Laws, performing them precisely!

“To love” God is “ahab,” meaning “to be friends” (and more) … obviously the depth of attachment is growing! But beyond “liking” a person … until absolute “adoration” begins!

Then … the heart of today’s Lesson … “to cleave” unto the Lord! “Dabaq” in Hebrew is the normal word for being “glued” to something! To “stick” to a person! Once transated “to be joined,” in the King James Version. Five times “to follow hard” after Him!

And as a Qal stem infinitive “dabaq” implies ongoing (perpetual, durative) adhesiveness to our Saviour! A “lifestyle,” if you please!

Reminds me of Psalm 63:8, two verbs there. “My soul followeth hard (“dabaq”) after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.” Yes, it’s “dabaq” again! (Note one’s soul no sooner pursues the Lord God, but that He immediately reaches out and “upholds” or “supports” His eager follower!)

So today’s let’s “be glued” to our Lord!

A “gluing” which first presupposes … obeying Him, loving Him, walking after Him!

Wow!

Oh, I am about to forget!

Once we do these things, culminating in such ardent attachment … the very next verse begins with the word “then.” Let me show you. “If ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him … THEN will the LORD …!”

Then will the Lord … “drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.”

In other words, “THEN will the Lord” give you victory!

Clearly, there are blessings accrued by “cleaving” unto the dear Lord!

I’d say, “innumerable blessings.”

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

“Lasting judgment!”

That’s what it looks like to me, anyway.

What God did to Egypt, who had enslaved the Jews over 400 years.

Deuteronomy 11:4 tells us this, about the devastation God poured upon that strong Country: “And what He did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day.”

See it?

“How the Lord hath destroyed them UNTO THIS DAY!”

After forty years, Egypt still had not recovered!

In fact, I am not sure Egypt has EVER totally reached her ancient prominence!

Again, because of sin!

Particularly the sin of hating Israel, abusing “the Apple of God’s Eye!”

(God to Israel, years after Moses wrote these words. “For thus saith the LORD of hosts … he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” Zechariah 2:9)

My point today … sin is so dangerous!

It’s wages can (at times anyway) be paid in installments!

That may be the very reason Egypt is a “has-been” in the world community.

And Egypt is still at it, I think. She is still hating Israel.

She may never be a world power again!

Perpetual judgment.

And the sin(s) I have committed? Or you?

Yes, Christian friend, they are forgiven.

No doubt about that, according to 1st John 1:9. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Written to Believers, I remind you.

But those sins (though gone) … still leave scars!

And maybe, even years later, diminished potential for the Lord.

Wow!

Yes, Grandma was right.  “An OUNCE of prevention is worth a POUND of cure!”

Stay away from sin!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

Verse 12 (of Deuteronomy chapter 10) uses an interesting string of words, an independent clause actually.

“And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God REQUIRE of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” Verse 11 is also included in the quote here.

I can only think of one other places such a question is asked, using essentially the same words. Beautiful, Amos 6:8, so succinct too! “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD REQUIRE of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Amos 6:8

God longs for obedience on the part of His children!

Wow!

And in case you feel “poor” today, verse 14 thunders of our Lord … “Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.” And Paul says we who are saved are “heirs” with this omni-wealthy God! I have been written “into His Will!” (No wonder Paul will later write: “For all things are yours,” 1st Corinthians 3:21.

Another rather dramatic Mosaic clause: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.” Verse 16, quite picturesque. Cut away all the “fleshly” desires of your heart! Here’s heart surgery prior to the invention of so-called modern medicine! (Notice how the heart controls the neck, precisely one’s emotions and thoughts overcoming his or her will, his stubbornness!)

And in verse 17 our Master is called “God of gods!” There is none like Him! I can only find this specific Title for God in 3 other Bible locations! All idols fall in His Presence!

And verse 19 cautions Israel about “foreigners.” God commanding: “Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Legislation is fine, illegality is (of course) always dangerous. But mistreating a “stranger” is not acceptable!

Lastly, today … the 21st verse calls God a beautiful Name: “He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.” He IS our PRAISE! Oh, that we might all properly adore Him today!

Well, this too. Deuteronomy chapter 10 closes at verse 22 with some statistics. “Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.” Do the math, remembering the census shortly after Israel left Egypt.

From a “family” of 70 people … to a “nation” of 2,000,000 at least!

Israel, the “apple of God’s Eye!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

I am overwhelmed! (A middle English word meaning “turned upside down!”)

Because of one of the truly great chapters of the whole Bible, Deuteronomy 10. (Or am I just ravenously hungry this morning, in a spiritual sense?)

Everything I read in the chapter is thrilling, twenty-two verses of insight!

For example, when Moses came to receive the “Ten Commandments” a second time (his having broken the first set) … God merely wrote the same words yet again on those new slabs of stone! (Verse 2, God speaking: “I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark.“ Some things, I think, bear repeating! Word for word!)

And … did you realize that Moses himself “hewed” (in Hebrew “pasal,” meaning “to cut”) the large pieces of rock to be the medium on which God would write the Commandments? What a multi-talented man, Moses! God again: “At that time the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount.” And two verses later … “And I … hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand.” Bible history! God may be the very Author of multi-tasking!)

And again this morning I was reminded that GOD HIMSELF wrote the Commandments on those tables of stone! See verse 4 of chapter 10 here. Plus a line from Exodus 31:18 … “two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” God, The Author!

Then we’re reminded that the Tribe of Levi inherited no farm land, but were to be paid from the “tithes” of Israel! And that, since they served God full-time in the things of the tabernacle and worship … “the Lord is His heritage,” verse 9. This thought amazes me because I have been preaching Psalm 16 this week in a revival. There Jesus tells His Father that God is His Inheritance! (Psalm 16:5 … “The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.” Wow!) Jesus, as dedicated as a Levite? Jesus, like a Priest? Jesus, totally sold-out to His Father? OH, YES!

And verse 11 is precious, in the King James Version. God told Moses … “Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them.” This is Moses leading two million Jews toward the Promised Land! But his commission is personalized! “Take THY journey … BEFORE the people” … and they will follow!

In essence that’s what a Pastor does before his flock! He journeys with his Lord (personally) and they, his people, inherently will follow (publically)!

Goodness!

Folks, there’s too much in chapter 10 to write about in one morning!

So … Deuteronomy chapter 10 will be further discussed tomorrow, the Lord willing.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell