Based on Deuteronomy 4:23-40 (New King James Version)
“Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him. Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
Pat Riley once said: “When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly search for new and more intricate explanations to explain away defeat.” Another term for complacency (biblically speaking) is being lukewarm. There are no real reactions when things are warm; and in actuality, warm is what we look for as part of our human comfort. I don’t think anyone wants to take an ice cold shower, with freezing temperature water. At the same time, no one likes to be scolded with their soup. Most normal people like to feel warm and cozy. We can’t sleep at night if we are either too cold or too hot. We can’t think straight if our body is exposed to extreme temperatures. So, is it bad to want to be comfortable? For certain things, it’s perfectly fine. But for others, especially the way we live our life and our spiritual walk; not a good thing.
I have to admit that this week has been a “challenging week” for me, as I shared with a cashier who so politely asked me this morning how I was doing. I briefly mentioned to her my personal family health stuff and even a near death experience of a worker on our construction site. She said, “I would probably use a stronger word than ‘challenging’ for what you have been through. I told her with a smile on my face, “You are probably right, but the Lord is good.” As I said the words, I remembered today’s passage (which is what I meditated on earlier today).
Things happen for a reason, or for many different reasons. This life is complicated within itself, and it can be even more challenging due to God’s involvement in it. God allows (yes, God) for the pressures of life to come in to keep provoking a reaction in our lives. That is where hot and cold come in. When something is warm, there is a feeling of comfort and tranquility. We don’t move or react. On the contrary, we relax. When something is so cold that it almost feels like a burn, it produces a reaction in us. You move, adjust, run, whatever it is, but there is definitely a reaction. At the same time, when something is so hot that you feel like you are getting burned as well; similar reactions. You don’t stay still. You move, get agitated, etc. Extreme temperatures cause action and movement. Warmth keeps you cozy. You’re not really going anywhere. God wants us to keep moving!
In today’s passage, we read of a warning to God’s people of what would happen to them if they turned their eyes away from God. Unfortunately, this warning became a fulfillment of prophecy against the people of Israel. They were stricken by their enemies; many were killed and taken captive by their enemies, and spread throughout the known the world (just as it was written). When given the warning, God asked them to bear in mind the great things He had done for them, but they forgot. They got complacent. They began mixing their worship to God with other idols and gods. And finally, they completely forgot about God and did unthinkable things. So God allows for trials, tribulations, and “corrections” to happen to bring us back to action, to keep pursuing Him. Destruction happens because we either have made sinful mistakes, bad decisions; and challenges will happen to keep us focused on Him.
So, here is what we have now to help us continue looking forward to God (more than just signs and wonders), recalling what He has done for all of us: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Anything that takes God’s rightful place (first) in our life is an idol. It can be money, power, fame, family, our own abilities, entertainment, etc. If we get side tracked by idols, destruction will happen. Challenges will happen to keep us on track as well. It is God’s purpose for us to have pressure so that we stay moving forward, to keep us feeling uncomfortable in this fallen and sinful world, by placing our eyes on Him who lasts forever; not on these temporal things that we have here. So, are you stuck somewhere feeling nice and warm, comfortably intermingling sin in your life, or are you moving forward towards Him? Lord bless! John