We are driving early this morning.

I will write today’s lesson when we arrive home, around 10:30, the Lord willing.

Then I’ll leave driving to tonight’s Revival Meeting in Newborn, Georgia.

It’s an honor … serving the Lord!

Thanks for dropping by to study with us today.

Deuteronomy, chapter by chapter!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Yesterday we mailed this month’s Newsletter and CD Sermon.

Those of you who support our ministry, no matter how much you give, will be receiving your packet soon.

And sincerely we say to you … THANKS for your help!

 

 

Deuteronomy Chapter 30 … is the great “life or death” chapter of the Bible. As is clearly seen in its fifteenth verse: “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.”

And is quickly repeated in verse nineteen: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”

And these two diametrically opposed conditions (life and death) are based on what?

OBEYING THE WORD OF GOD!

Verse sixteen: “I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.”

Wow!

And just how HARD might that be, finding this Word of God? To learn and follow all the days of one’s life? To enjoy such a time of blessing?

Now, today’s Bible “Text” …

“For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” Deuteronomy 30:11-14

These stipulations, laws, are all readily available!

This “commandment” (meaning the whole lot of them, all 613 if the rabbis are right) is here being depicted as “One Word” from God.

And it is not “hidden!” Here the Holy Spirit uses the word “pala,” an unusual word in this context. But 5 times in the Bible (Old Testament, “pala” being Hebrew) it is translated “hard.” This (our Text) is the only time it is translated “hidden,” but the meaning is essentially the same.

Plus, the parallel clause locks the meaning securely, “neither is it far off.” Where “rahoq” is used, meaning “remote, distant, a great space.”

If God is going to require that His “COMMANDMENT” be respected and implemented … He will make it available, handy, not far removed and inaccessible! That’s the point of the whole paragraph!

One does not have to go to “Heaven” to get it!

Nor across the “sea!”

No, the Jews have been so taught the Word of God that it can be said … “But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart.”

Already memorized!

In fact, they wore it on their heads and arms!

They also posted these words on their doorposts and walls of their homes!

They were taught to speak of them (God’s Words, Commands) day and night. When they got up on the morning! When they went to bed every night! When they ate their meals! Virtually, all the time!

Truthfully it could be declared: “But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart.”

If God makes a strong demand … He also makes the following of that command easy! He makes His precepts handily found!

To what end, what’s the goal?

The last words to every clause in the passage are … “that we may hear it, and do it!” Applying the Word of God! Note the sequence … hearing first. Then doing!

Wondrous thoughts!

From what nearly amounts to a geography lesson!

By the way, God’s Word (the New Testament I mean now) is equally available to us today!

To obey the Commands of Jesus!

Thank God today for your Bible, dear friends!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Oh yes, Paul in Romans 10:6-9 quotes these Deuteronomy verses about the (easy) availability of God’s plan of Salvation! Here it is: “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down from above, or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Wow!

 

 

 

I’ve know of the verse for years. And every time I’ve read through the whole Bible, I naturally came across Deuteronomy 29:29 again. (George Mueller read through his Bible over 200 times … on his knees! So says his biographer.)

“The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

God has “secrets?”

Yes, in the sense that GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING.

And we don’t know everything!

And apparently … some of those secret things may NEVER be made known!

Until we get to Heaven, anyway.

The Hebrew word “secret” (spelled “sathar”) means “hidden,” and at times even “concealed!”

But with God much is also “revealed!”

“Galah” here means “uncovered, discovered, shown.”

I think Moses may be saying that some things are beyond human capability to discern. Or at least beyond the bounds of propriety!

But those “revealed” things (God having made them known) can be appropriated, personalized and made our very own! “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed BELONG UNTO US and to our children for ever.”

See here that we’re supposed to “pass along” those truths to our children (and grandchildren)?

Make God’s revealed truths part of those younger lives as well!

But why?

Why does God “tell” us certain things?

“For our own good,” my Dad would have said.

God reveals them to us … “that we may do all the words of this law.”

That we may obey!

“Do” (“asah”) means “to follow through and perform” those things.

The “time” idea of the verb (an infinitive in Hebrew) is progressive.

Habitual “doing!”

For a lifetime!

“The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Wow, let’s ponder this one today.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Paul wrote to the generous Philippian Church … “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

And Jesus (our Saviour) Himself advised, commanded really … “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” With “these things” being food and clothing and shelter! I’ve quoted Matthew 6:33 here.

God, the Provider!

And this morning (our Lesson) is found in Deuteronomy 29:5-6, where Moses is reviewing a bit of Jewish history. (The previous 40 years anyway.)

Listen to the Lord God: “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. ⁶ Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.

Again, the great Provider!

Clothes not wearing out! The noun here for “clothes” is “salmah,” meaning anything from outerwear to underwear. Quite a wardrobe! The verb “waxen old” (spelled “balah” in Hebrew) means “to waste away, to be consumed.”

Nor their shoes either, no decay! The noun here can mean either sandals or shoes. (Saturday leaving for the North Carolina Revival this week I had to go by the little “shoe repair shop” at the Mall in Chattanooga!)

Oh, by the way … where God here says “I have led” you … He beautifully employs “halak,” a verb meaning (122 times) “to walk” by one’s side!

Wow!

What Companionship!

Then the 6th verse. “Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.”

Wow!

Actually the Israelites did not encamp anywhere long enough to plant and harvest crops. (Thus, no bread, from earthly grain anyway!) And certainly not long enough to become grape growers. (No “wine.”) So … God surely has the “manna” in mind, as their means of sustenance! So His people would TRUST His Provision, TRUST His Person, TRUST His Word!

Now … many would complain at such a unified diet. Year after year, identical meals, manna and water! In fact, the Jews did complain, some of them anyway.

But God is obviously thrilled with the report!

God is claiming that He (alone) fed them!

He did!

The doubters once asked … “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” Psalm 78:19

Well, in a word, YES!

The Bible says: “He (the Lord) rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.” Psalm 78:24

And He furthermore … “smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.” Psalm 78:20

Gourmets today would have called God’s plan (this heavenly diet) way too limited!

Boring!

But God is satisfied with it.

Why?

Moses explaining God’s actions to the Israelites …

“And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” Deuteronomy 8:3, a verse Jesus later quoted to Satan!

Yes, God the Provider … so that mankind might TRUST Him for every need!

Folks, let’s thank Him today for His (many) provisions!

Psalm 68:19 teaches us how … “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.”

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

The Bible even suggests that God feeds the animal world too! “Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God: Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.” Psalm 147:7-9

 

One of my Grandmothers (called “Grandma” actually) used to advise us: “Don’t ‘wish’ your life away!” (I, as an early teen, was bad to say: “I wish I was old enough to get my driver’s license.” Or … “I wish I was old enough to pastor a Church.”)

I’ve thought of her words many times, especially as I have aged. “Mike, “don’t ‘wish’ your life away!” She would then continue: “All in God’s Time.”

And the Apostle Paul, though in different terminology, says essentially the same thing in both Ephesians 5:16 and Colossians 4:5. “Redeeming the time.” (Not …”rushing” the time!)

Jesus too, while on earth two thousand years ago, kept His Eye on an approaching “Hour!” Once (in John 2:4) He said to His Mother: “Mine hour is not yet come.” He had in mind the “Hour” of His Sacrifice for the sins of the world, Calvary! (Meaning a specific “period” of time. That torturous Ordeal on the Cross lasted six hours, according to the four Gospels.) Still, our Lord never once “rushed” that hour!

But today our Bible Study (our Text) says, in describing the consequences of disobeying God … “In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! For the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear.” Deuteonomy 28:67

Again, because of fear and worry and terror … all due to Israel’s rebellion against God … “In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!”

Yes, the exclamation point is really in the Text, King James Version!

Wishing one’s life away!

Dreading every single day!

And night!

How better any child of God would live … if he or she simply did what God said, as a habitual way of conduct! In fact, here is the path that person would follow daily … “This is the DAY which the LORD hath made; we WILL REJOICE and BE GLAD in it.” Psalm 118:24

Wow!

Big difference!

All depending on one’s being “right” with God.

Advice for this Saturday morning in April … ENJOY every minute God gives you today.

As the hours go by … remember what Moses said back in Psalm 90:12. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Moses “prayed” these words, really.

Don’t rush your life away.

Savor every second.

Not only is ETERNAL LIFE a Gift from God.

So is daily mundane life …

This too, Psalm 31:15, another prayer to God … “My times are in Thy Hand.”

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I only received one Text of encouragement yesterday! It was precious, though! Yes, you all have me spoiled! Has this Lesson spoken to anyone’s heart? If so, you know what to do … 770-844-7627. Thanks!

By the way, Deuteronomy 28 (which we have now studied the last three mornings) is the longest chapter in the whole Book. With Deuteronomy having 34 chapters, a total of 959 verses.