See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me

“See now that I myself am he!  There is no god besides me. Du 32:39

Thought on Deuteronomy Chapter 32

When I opened up to read this chapter to read, the verse seemed to be assimilated in a pattern that resembles poetry writing. It is beautiful! No wonder why it said “song’s of Moses” at the bottom of previous chapter (Du 31).

Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;

    hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.

2 Let my teaching fall like rain

    and my words descend like dew,

like showers on new grass,

    like abundant rain on tender plants.

I noticed such a divine authority and power in Moses word when he spoke to the heaven and earth to hear his word. Order!

3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord.

    Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect,

    and all his ways are just.

A faithful God who does no wrong,

    upright and just is he.

Truthfully to understand, believe and say God is just in all he has does only come through revelation by the holy sprit. You think of many thing went wrong in life and really wonder if God is Just.  You might question if God is just why all the unjust things happened? I mean really! I have asked these sorts of questions many times in my life and I didn’t just want to hear some mare words that would “comforting” or give me a way out. I wanted to know the truth.  For my own amazement, I give all the glory to God for all his bestowed love up on my life, me asking those questions brought me close to him. I found TRUTH only in him and came to realize he Himself is the Truth!

“Upright and just is He”!    Du 32:4

They are corrupt and not his children;

    to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.

6 Is this the way you repay the Lord,

    you foolish and unwise people?

Is he not your Father, your Creator,[a]

    who made you and formed you?

Note: We shall not forget who our Creator is and got out in the world to be a crooked generation. We are ambassadors of Christ while we live on earth to be the light and salt of the world and carry own our kings legacy!

For the Lord’s portion is his people,

    Jacob his allotted inheritance.

10 In a desert land he found him,

    in a barren and howling waste.

He shielded him and cared for him;

    he guarded him as the apple of his eye,

11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest

    and hovers over its young,

that spreads its wings to catch them

    and carries them aloft.

12 The Lord alone led him;

    no foreign god was with him.

This is not a history that happened once up on a time for a man called Jacob. It is still for you and me People!

·         Do ya really know how much you are loved???....

They are a nation without sense,

    there is no discernment in them.

29 If only they were wise and would understand this

    and discern what their end will be!

30 How could one man chase a thousand,

    or two put ten thousand to flight,

unless their Rock had sold them,

    unless the Lord had given them up?

31 For their rock is not like our Rock,

    as even our enemies concede.

32 Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom

    and from the fields of Gomorrah.

Their grapes are filled with poison,

    and their clusters with bitterness.

33 Their wine is the venom of serpents,

    the deadly poison of cobras

In reading this portion of the chapter, I noticed  how Moses questioned the senselessness and ignorance of Israelites that they didn’t even acknowledge that how could one  man( one of them) were able to chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight? He was asking them question in a sense that how come you don’t wisely see that and understand if it wouldn’t have been the Lord you wouldn’t able to do that.

“See now that I myself am he!

    There is no god besides me.

I put to death and I bring to life,

    I have wounded and I will heal,

    and no one can deliver out of my hand.

Beautiful savior!

There is no one else like you Lord!

Deuteronomy Continue....

Deuteronomy 

“If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entice you, saying“ Let us go and worship other gods’’ Deu 13:6

Here it emphasize how crucial it is for us to have our faith ONLY in our Lord God. He shall be our only god that we worship now and forever. If you do turn away from God and worship other God, God has no mercy. There will be consequences that comes along with the disobedience. This section shows how we should always obey God regardless of the circumstances that includes closest people in our lives. Always LOVE the Lord your God with all our heart.

>>> A Side Note I found in my bible that we can all consider/ponder: How can we love when we don’t feel loving?  In the Bible Love is more than a feeling; it is a decision to serve another person’s interest. Only through God’s help can this decision be made with “all your heart” I just found that inspiring :)

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of the people on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you yo be his treasured possession.” Deu 14:2

Is in it amazing how God thought of each one of us before we were here on this earth. He had plans for us because we are his treasured possession. Wow treasured possession, huh, that's how SIGNIFICANT we are to God (beyond words). God loves us so much, so he thought for us before we thought for ourselves; what is good(clean) and not good(unclean) foods to eat. Our God is so smart, he had strategies on how to go about in making his people live up to his expectations (or should I say fruitful). Whether we live to his expectations is in our hands [don't you think?]

“Be sure to set aside a tenth of all your fields produce each year.” Deu 14:22

Tithes; no matter how successful we may or may not be we should always remember to give back to those who are in need for the sake of GOD. Do we take set aside tenth of our earnings or offerings and take it where our heart desires? Is it where God wants it to be? Is it a place we worship our God(Church)? 

“Determine the distances involved and divide into three parts the land the Lord your god is giving you as an inheritance, so that anyone who kills a man may flee there.” Deu 19:3

You would think it's a ridiculous idea to divide the cities into three parts. One area is for those to flee to who has killed unintentionally. Why is that so? Why couldn't justice be done there where the crime was done? Even though it written later; for those who do commit murder intentionally and flee to the far city, they will be brought back for justice. I'm still curious why divide the cities? But then again it's God's will.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Deuteronomy

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible

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An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of The Fifth Book of Moses, Called Deuteronomy
This book is a repetition of very much both of the history and of the laws contained in the three foregoing books, which repetition Moses delivered to Israel (both by word of mouth, that it might affect, and by writing, that it might abide) a little before his death. There is no new history in it but that of the death of Moses in the last chapter, nor any new revelation to Moses, for aught that appears, and therefore the style here is not, as before, The Lord spoke unto Moses, saying. But the former laws are repeated and commented upon, explained and enlarged, and some particular precepts added to them, with copius reasonings for the enforcing of them: in this Moses was divinely inspired and assisted, so that this is as truly the word of the Lord by Moses as that which was spoken to him with an audible voice out of the tabernacle of the congregation, Lev. 1:1. The Greek interpreters call it Deuteronomy, which signifies the second law, or a second edition of the law, not with amendments, for there needed none, but with additions, for the further direction of the people in divers cases not mentioned before. Now, I. It was much for the honour of the divine law that it should be thus repeated; how great were the things of that law which was thus inculcated, and how inexcusable would those be by whom they were counted as a strange thing! Hos. 8:12. II. There might be a particular reason for the repeating of it now; the men of that generation to which the law was first given were all dead, and a new generation had sprung up, to whom God would have it repeated by Moses himself, that, if possible, it might make a lasting impression upon them. Now that they were just going to take possession of the land of Canaan, Moses must read the articles of agreement to them, that they might know upon what terms and conditions they were to hold and enjoy that land, and might understand that they were upon their good behaviour in it. III. It would be of great use to the people to have those parts of the law thus gathered up and put together which did more immediately concern them and their practice; for the laws which concerned the priests and Levites, and the execution of their offices, are not repeated: it was enough for them that they were once delivered. But, in compassion to the infirmities of the people, the laws of more common concern are delivered a second time. Precept must be upon precept, and line upon line, Isa. 28:10. The great and needful truths of the gospel should be often pressed upon people by the ministers of Christ. To write the same things (says Paul, Phil. 3:1) to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. What God has spoken once we have need to hear twice, to hear many times, and it is well if, after all, it be duly perceived and regarded. In three ways this book of Deuteronomy was magnified and made honourable:-1. The king was to write a copy of it with his own hand, and to read therein all the days of his life, ch. 17, 18, 19. 2. It was to be written upon great stones plastered, at their passing over Jordan, ch. 27:2, 3. 3. It was to be read publicly every seventh year, at the feast of tabernacles, by the priests, in the audience of all Israel, ch. 31:9, etc. The gospel is a kind of Deuteronomy, a second law, a remedial law, a spiritual law, a law of faith; by it we are under the law of Christ, and it is a law that makes the comers thereunto perfect.

This book of Deuteronomy begins with a brief rehearsal of the most remarkable events that had befallen the Israelites since they came from Mount Sinai. In the fourth chapter we have a most pathetic exhortation to obedience. In the twelfth chapter, and so on to the twenty-seventh, are repeated many particular laws, which are enforced (ch. 27 and 28) with promises and threatenings, blessings and curses, formed into a covenant, ch. 29 and 30. Care is taken to perpetuate the remembrance of these things among them (ch. 31), particularly by a song (ch. 32), and so Moses concludes with a blessing, ch. 33. All this was delivered by Moses to Israel in the last month of his life. The whole book contains the history but of two months; compare ch. 1:3 with Jos. 4:19, the latter of which was the thirty days of Israel's mourning for Moses; see how busy that great and good man was to do good when he knew that his time was short, how quick his motion when he drew near his rest. Thus we have more recorded of what our blessed Saviour said and did in the last week of his life than in any other. The last words of eminent persons make or should make deep impressions. Observe, for the honour of this book, that when our Saviour would answer the devil's temptations with, It is written, he fetched all his quotations out of this book, Mt. 4:4, 7, 10.

http://mhcw.biblecommenter.com/deuteronomy/1.htm

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 

As I was reading Deuteronomy 2: 33-34 33 “the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army.”  This is what I quickly jotted down on my note pad: Did God give them power and strength to destroy men, women, children? All the path and struggles they endure, Is it to reach the "Promised Land"? Our God is a good God, how can that be?? As I continued to read through, I answered my own question. It’s written in Deuteronomy 7:4 You see God has no mercy for those who turn his people away from his commands and allow them to worship other Gods. He is our LORD GOD and by destroying those who hated him, his love for us lives on forever and ever!!!

Deuteronomy 5 shows the importance of the ten commandments. God mad a covenant with us. In order for us to live a prosperous life, we need to live by his commandments. Our God knows what is best for us, so let us not wonder but walk with him and follow him as he opens our hearts to do what he has commanded us to do. 

Bible Reading Planner 4

Reflection on John Chapter 14

Reflection on John Chapter 14

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

In this chapter we see how Jesus comforts his disciples and tell them he is the only Way and the Truth and the Life, if one wants to come to the father. Both Thomas and Philip asked an interesting question in return to what Jesus told them about where he would be going and who the “Father” is. I found the question asked by Thomas to be intriguing. This is what he said to Jesus when Jesus told them he will go to prepare a place for them.

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”⁶ 
And Jesus answered:-
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
And here is the question asked by Philip: ⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus response:- : “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
In the following versus I loved how Jesus kept referring back to his father and he was the one who has given him the authority to speak the words he was speaking to his disciples. You might think of he is equally powerful and able to do anything just like his father. And his father is him and him his father. But but…, how beautiful and wonderful he is to ordained all respect, love and glory back to his father. I see how he was so determination to accomplish what his father had sent him for!
The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…

Not only for his disciples but also Jesus has promised us if we believe in him, we can do even more than what he has done and greater things in life.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

God is able! And his is able and faithful to finish all the work he has began with in us. The word of God speaks to us “be still and KNOW that I am God”. So shall we. Sometimes we might not know what we need to do about some difficult or confusing situations we face in life. We might think really there might not be a way out or it is going to cost us a whole lot more than what we can handle. However, Jesus tells us today

 14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me!

He is indeed the ONLY way! Our redeemer Lives!

“I am the way and the truth and the life.”

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