Deuteronomy 5-10: How Can the Simple Be So Hard?

Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.   He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. - Deut. 10:20-21 NIV

The book of Deuteronomy is Moses' recitation of the events of the Children of Israel from their plight  in, and then subsequent flight from, Egypt to the edge of the promised land. It is the story of a faithful God and his not so faithful chosen people.  God did not choose them because of their faithfulness.  As a people they had none, but their ancestor, Abraham who heard the voice of God, who trusted God and walked with him.

Generations later, Moses has the same kind of relationship with God.  He hears his voice, he trusts him and God presents himself to him.  Moses certainly was not perfect.  He could get angry.  In fact, his anger resulted in his not being able to enter the promised land.  He could only view it from afar. But that did not change his relationship with God.  It did not change his walk with God.

Sometimes, we make something that is so simple, so difficult.  We put so many hindrances and requirements on salvation, when those who truly see God know that all he requires is that we hold fast to him.  That we fear him and serve him.  That's it.  Any other requirements are man made. The prophet Micah echoes this truth.  "He hath shown 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?" - Micah 6:8 KJV

 How can anything so simple be so hard?

Deuteronomy 1-4: Sound Familiar

See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it.  
Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”  
What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?  
And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?  
Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. - Deuteronomy 4:5-9 NIV

As with any great nation that has been blessed by God, there is a tendency to forget, or as Moses told the Children of Israel, "let them slip from your hearts as long as you live," God's commands.  Israel was told not to forget that it was God's blessings that brought them to where they were.  They were not to forget that it was because of his love that they prospered.  They were not to forget to pass this wisdom on to their children.  They were warned not to think that it was all their own doing or they would be doomed.

In spite of Moses' commands, the righteous decrees and laws that were established would soon be forgotten.  Generations would grow up that didn't understand why they were born into such fortunate circumstances.  They would take all of God's blessings for granted until one day it would be too late, and their great nation would be lost.

Sound familiar?

Numbers 32-36: Polluting the Land

 “‘Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.  Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.’” -Num. 35:33-34 NIV.

We have become so accustomed to bloodshed, so used to the nightly press reports of war, murder, school shootings, bombings and suicide, that we don't realize what a stench, what an anathema it is in God's sight.  Bloodshed does polite the land.  The corpses of the innocent cry out for revenge and only God is able to heal those broken and hurt.  None of us are immune.  I've lost more than my share of friends and even family to war, suicide, and murder.  The hurt never goes away.  What does God want from us on this issue?  Can we expect his presence to continue to dwell with us in the midst of the violence perpetuated on this land?

Numbers 25- 31: On the Edge of God's Promise

While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the LORD’s anger burned against them. -Num 25:1-3 NIV

Even while the hand of God was protecting them, the Israelites were enticed by their neighbors to go against God's commands.  This is a new generation; the children of those who refused to enter the promised land.  They're camped on the outskirts of the land that will be theirs, yet that promise is not enough to keep them from turning to other gods and pleasures.  How did all of this come about?  Perhaps it is revealed in the following words of Moses.

“Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD’s people.  - Num 31:15-16 NIV

Baalam, just like Satan is wont to do, saw their vulnerability.  He was unable to get God to curse the Israelites, so his second attempt would be to entice them away from their God.  God is constant.  His people are not.  They were caught up in sin even as they were standing on the edge of God's promise. Perhaps the closer we get to all that God has created us for, all of his promises, the more vulnerable we become to the tempting lies of the enemy.

Numbers 19-24: Balak and Balaam

From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations.
Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!” -Num. 23:9-10 NIV

When most people think of Baalam, they remember the story of his donkey speaking to him, but that is a minor story compared to his response to when Balak summoned him to curse Israel.

The Children of Israel had been wandering, waiting in the desert for forty years, until all of the rebellious elders had died, in order to enter the promised land.  This was not a small crowd, but they had been quiet and kept to themselves so they were not a threat to the others until they started to move.  That is when Balak started to get worried and he summoned Balaam to head them off at the pass.  Balaam may have been a pagan seer, but he saw things in the spiritual realm.


God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
“No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The LORD their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them. - Num. 23:19-21 NIV

No matter how much Balak threatened Balaam, he would not, could not change his pronouncements. All he could do was bless the very people that Balak commanded him to curse.


When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him and he uttered his oracle: “The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,the oracle of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
“How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
“Like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the LORD, like cedars beside the waters.
Water will flow from their buckets; their seed will have abundant water. “Their king will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted. -Num. 24:2-7 NIV

 While the Israelites may have grumbled and rebelled, paying the price for their actions with plagues and sometimes even sudden death, they were still God's chosen people.  The Lord their God was with them.  The shout of the king was in their midst.  God's plan was going to be fulfilled and there was nothing that Balak or Balaam could do to stop it.  

Numbers 16-18: Offenses Against the Priesthood

Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolentand rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well–known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council.  
They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD ’s assembly?” - Num. 16:2-3  NIV

Why is it so easy and common to complain about those that the Lord has chosen to be his representatives.  Just like the Children of Israel, we complain about those that are in positions of leadership:  the pastors, televangelists, Christian writers, and Sunday School teachers.  We move from church to church looking for the perfect leader.  Do we ever consider how offensive this must be to God.  He puts people in their place. He is the one who chooses.  He is the one who exalts, so why do we think we know better.  The church today is strewn with the bodies of those who once felt they heard the call of God, but have become disillusioned and discouraged to the point where they leave ministry all together.  That is not what God designed.  I say this when I have often been as guilty as anyone else.

Rather than tearing our leaders down, we should be building them up.  Since, as the Apostle Paul says, all we, as believers, are now the priesthood, we should be carrying the weight of that responsibility and lifting up those who are in formal positions of leadership.  As God told Aaron, we should bear the responsibility for offenses against the priesthood.

The LORD said to Aaron, “You, your sons and your father’s family are to bear the responsibility for offenses against the sanctuary, and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offenses against the priesthood. - Num. 18:1 NIV

Numbers 13-15: In the Land of Giants

The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.”  - Num. 14:20-25 NIV

It was just a little sin.  The Israelites were only trying to protect themselves and their children from the threat of others bigger and stronger than themselves.  So, they decided not to trust God any more, the God who led them out of Egypt, who parted the Red Sea, who gave them manna and quail and water from the rock.

Somewhere along the line, they got it in their heads that they were responsible for their own safekeeping.  They took matters into their own hands and all of a sudden, God's promises seemed impossible.  All the good things that God promised were at hand; they were even visible in the grapes and fruit that the spies brought back, but the threat of a few giants erased all hope.

Nothing has changed today.  We know God has kept his promises in the past, but now, now there are giants in the land:  fearsome, awful, ungodly, giants and our knees quake at the thought.  We'll not go there.  We'll not confront the enemy.  We'll not claim what is ours.

God's response has not changed either.  He forgives us, but we will not see the land he promised us.  Only the faithful  ones, the ones who take him at his word, will see all he has in store for us.  Only the faithful ones will dwell in peace in the land of giants.