Gleanings from Deuteronomy
Today I finished Deuteronomy in my Bible plan for this year. Here are a few fresh, striking points from my reading of this book:
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Deu 9:12 Then Jehovah said to me, Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people, whom you have brought out of Egypt, have spoiled themselves; they have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten image.
20 And Jehovah was very angry with Aaron, enough to destroy him. But I prayed also for Aaron at that time.I had always wondered why Aaron was spared, and even permitted to continue as the high priest, when he had been so involved in such a gross sin. Now I realize it was specifically because of Moses’ intercession.
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Deu 12:5 But to the place which Jehovah your God will choose out of all your tribes to put His name, to His habitation, shall you seek, and there shall you go.
6 And there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes and the heave offering of your hand and your vows and your freewill offerings and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock;
7 And there you shall eat before Jehovah your God, and you and your households shall rejoice in all your undertakings, in which Jehovah your God has blessed you.
8 You shall not do according to all that we do here today, each man doing all that is right in his own eyes;
9 For until now you have not come to the rest and to the inheritance that Jehovah your God is giving you.These verses show that God permitted His people to sacrifice to Him whenever and wherever while they were still wandering in the desert. But when He brought them into the good land where they had real enjoyment, then He enforced His real desire that they only sacrifice to Him in the unique place of His choosing. In the same way, God does not burden Christians today with His command to meet only on the ground of oneness while they are still “wandering in the desert,” living a Christian life in their souls. He first brings us to know, experience and abide in the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ (our good land today). Only when we are dwelling in Christ in such a way does God bring us on to see that His heart’s desire is that this Christ be enjoyed in the place of His choosing—the unique ground of oneness. The corollary of this is that it is impossible to practice the unique ground of oneness without first abiding in Christ as our all-inclusive good land.
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