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441 | The Lord Goeth Before You · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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God is in control.
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She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
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at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
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like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
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Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
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or on our website at watwm.org, We invite you to sit down with us as we look
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to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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Living her life for Christ She's a happy girl.
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Music.
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She's a happy girl.
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There are so many promises found in God's Word. When we spend time in the Old
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Testament, we read of the promises God gave to the Israelites.
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And when we know and believe Romans 2.11, we can be confident that God is no
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respecter of persons, meaning that the promises made to those we read about
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in God's Word hold true for us.
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The same God who literally parted rivers in the Old Testament is the same God
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who is removing obstacles in our lives today.
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Join us in this podcast, A Woman at the Well Ministries, as Erica Close brings
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us the truths found in the book of Deuteronomy 1,
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focusing on Deuteronomy 1.30, which says, The Lord your God which goeth before
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you, He shall fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes.
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As Christians, we live on this side of the cross.
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But we are given lessons in the pages and in the passages of the Old Testament
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that still hold true for us today.
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The book of Deuteronomy is rich in life lessons, and it's a book that has spoken
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to my heart for many, many years,
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and one that I'm so excited to start to share with you today and to dive into
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with you in the coming weeks.
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So the book of Deuteronomy, whose title literally means a repetition of the
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law, serves as a conclusion to the Pentateuch.
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So that's the first five books of the Old Testament.
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But it also bridges to the historical books that start right after that.
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When we're reading about the Israelites in the book of Deuteronomy,
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the Israelites are sitting on the plains of Moab. And it's just before the Israelites
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cross into the promised land.
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It is Moses' final address to the Israelites, and it's this new generation of Israelites.
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It's not the ones that left Egypt, but it's the ones that have been born since they left Egypt.
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Moses' speeches recount the journey that the Israelites took.
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It restates or reviews the
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law and it emphasizes that god has
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a claim on these people that they are
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his people in many ways deuteronomy
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sort of like pauses that forward motion of the old testament so much of the
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old testament that if you've read it straight through there's so much going
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on and then you get to deuteronomy and it's this pause and it's a review and he does that right?
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God does that, not to just tell
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again what had happened in the first four books, but to remind people,
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to remind the Israelites of God's requirements for them, if they're to live
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in his promised land and for us in that promised rest that he has for us.
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It reflects on history, but it reflects on the relationship that God wants to have with his people.
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And in that way, it's important for any of us that want to enter into a faithful
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relationship with God himself.
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So today's key verse is Deuteronomy 1.30, which says, The Lord your God, which goeth before you,
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he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.
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Join with me as we read Deuteronomy 1, verses 1-46.
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These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness,
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in the plain over against the Red Sea, between Param and Tophel and Laban and Hezeroth and Dizab.
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There are eleven days' journeys from Horeb by the way of Mount Sair unto Kadesh Barnea.
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And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month,
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on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel,
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according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them.
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After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon,
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and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt in Ashtoreth and Edri,
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on this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab began Moses to declare this law,
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saying, The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying,
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You have dwelt long enough in this mount.
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Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites,
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and unto all the plains nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, in the vale,
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and in the south, and by the seaside, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon,
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unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
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Behold, I have set the land before you.
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Go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers,
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Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.
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And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bury you myself alone.
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The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and behold, ye are this day as the stars
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of heaven for a multitude.
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The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are,
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and bless you as he hath promised you.
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How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance and your burden and your strife?
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Take you wise men and understanding and known among your tribes,
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and I will make them rulers over you.
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And he answered me and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do.
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So I took the chief priests of your tribes, wise men and known,
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and made them heads over you,
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captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties,
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and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.
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And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your
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brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with them.
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You shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great.
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You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's and the
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cause that is too hard for you.
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Bring it to me, and I will hear it. And I commanded you at that time all the
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things which you should do.
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And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible
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wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountains of the Amorites,
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as the Lord our God commanded us, and we came to Kadesh Barnea.
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And I said unto you, Ye are come into the mountain of the Amorites,
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which the Lord our God doth give unto us.
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Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee.
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Go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers has said unto thee,
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Fear not, neither be discouraged.
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And ye came near me, every one of you, and said, We will send men before us,
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and they shall search out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must
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go up, and into what cities we shall come.
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And the same pleased me well, and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe,
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and they turned and went up into
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the mountain, and came into the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out.
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And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down unto
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us and brought us word again and said, it is a good land, which the Lord our God doth give us.
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Notwithstanding, you would not go up.
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But rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God.
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And he murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hath hated us,
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he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand
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of the Amorites, to destroy us.
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Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our heart,
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saying, The people is greater and taller than we.
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The cities are great and walled up to heaven, and moreover we have seen the
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sons of the Anakims there.
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Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
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The Lord your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you,
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according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.
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And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen that the Lord thy God bare thee,
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as a man doth bear his son in the way that ye went until ye came into this place.
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Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way
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before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in,
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and fire by night, and to show you by what way you should go,
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and in the cloud by day.
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And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and swear,
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saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see.
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That good land which I swear to give unto your fathers.
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Save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it.
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And to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children,
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because he hath wholly followed the Lord.
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Also the Lord was angry with me for your sake, saying, Thou shall not go in thither.
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But Joshua, the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither.
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Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
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Moreover, your little ones, which he said should be a prey, and your children,
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which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither.
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And unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
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But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.
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Then he answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the Lord,
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and we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us.
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And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill.
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And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight,
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for I am not among you, lest ye be smitten before your enemies.
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So I spake unto you, and you would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment
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of the Lord, and went presumptuously up into the hill.
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And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you,
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and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Horma.
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And you returned and wept before the Lord.
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But the Lord would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you.
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So ye abode in Kadesh many days according unto the days that ye abode there.
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So this first chapter of Deuteronomy sets the stage for the entire book.
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And as we read through this book, we see that Moses is speaking to the Israelites.
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They're camped across the Jordan. They're directly across and can see the promised
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land that the Lord promised them so many years ago.
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And Moses is speaking to the Israelites, and he's speaking to a new generation,
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because the generation of the Israelites that fled Egypt has died.
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And before this new generation can cross into the promised land,
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Moses has to remind them of the law that was given to them by God.
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And this new generation has only known what it means to wander in the desert.
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They don't know all the stories of what's happened to their predecessors.
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But before them lies the promise that God gave to their predecessors.
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So before they can enter into that land, they have to hear the law so that they
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know how to live when they get there, how to live righteously in the land that God has promised them.
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So beginning in Deuteronomy 1 and verse 6, Moses is reminding the Israelites
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of all that has happened in the 40 years in the desert.
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He reminds them that after the Israelites left Horeb, The Lord commanded them
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to go in and to take the land of the Amorites.
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The Lord told the Israelites, go in and possess the land which the Lord swear
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unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them and to their seed after them.
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There's no mention here of them preparing for battle.
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There's just instruction to go in and possess the land.
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The Lord had paved the way. The Lord tells them through Moses to fear not and not to be discouraged.
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What did the Israelites do? They decided that before they were going to walk
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in to possess the land, they were first going to send spies ahead to check the land out.
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So they sent in 12 men and found that indeed it was a really good land,
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just like the Lord had promised them.
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And yet what happened? The Israelites rebelled against the Lord,
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and instead of seeing the land as the promise of God, they see that the people
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in the land were quote-unquote greater and taller than they are.
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And as we so often do in our lives today, they stopped and they chose to look
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at the circumstances instead of the promises that God had given them.
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And then those circumstances, the fact that the people there were tall and big,
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just those circumstances discouraged those Israelites so much that they didn't
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take hold of the promise of God.
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They didn't go in and take that land.
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What's amazing to me here is that in spite of all this, Moses still encourages them.
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He still encourages the people. He tells them not to be afraid because the Lord
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is going to go before them.
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The Lord will fight for them, and he will continue to fight for them just as
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he did as when he brought them out of Egypt.
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The Lord then reiterates to them again and again all that he has done for them,
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since the time that he brought them out of Egypt.
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He went before them like a cloud in the day and a fire in the night,
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and he led them in the way that they were supposed to go.
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But in spite of all of the Lord's guidance and all of the splendor of the Lord
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that was displayed to them, The Israelites didn't believe, and the Israelites didn't move.
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And it was then that God made a big decision. The Lord decided that the generation
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that came out of Egypt was not going to enter the promised land.
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Though that promise was for them, they were not going to be the ones to receive that promise.
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And the people that had come out of Egypt would have to wander in the desert
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for 40 years. So the Lord literally told him, turn around and go back into the wilderness.
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After he tells them to go back into the wilderness, the Israelites finally decide
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that it might just be time to obey God.
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So they decided to go in and fight the Amorites for the land that the Lord had promised them.
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Unfortunately, though, that time of
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promise, that time of a clear and easy possession of that land had passed.
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So as the Israelites headed into the land of the Amorites, the Amorites came
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out against them, and they destroyed the Israelites in battle.
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We read that they literally came after them like a swarm of bees,
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and they destroyed the Israelites that went in to try and take the land that
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the Lord had already promised them,
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but which was no longer theirs, not for that generation.
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When we look at this chapter in the book of Deuteronomy, I think that it displays
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like a classic picture of a day in the life of a follower of God.
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The Lord hands us a promise and shows us the path of obedience required to attain that promise.
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But instead of walking down that path without question, we use our worldly ways
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and our worldly eyes to investigate the promise.
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We ask is this really possible or maybe
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we ask just how is god going to do this
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and just like the israelites with their spies we
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investigate on our own and instead of walking the way god wants us to walk by
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walking in faith what happens next is clear it happens all the time the results
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of our worldly investigations show us the circumstances that are surrounding
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the path that we're going to walk.
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And when we look at our circumstances, fear enters in, and we decide not to take that path.
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We let the weeds of the world crowd out the path that God has set before us.
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Then we can't even see God's promise for all the weeds.
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We might later decide to walk down that path, but I would submit to you that
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when we've let the weeds of the world grow on that path,
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we're going to be bushwhacking our way through that path and down that path
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instead of strolling down the path like we would have if we had just obeyed God the first time.
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God's ways are sure, and his paths are always straight.
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Whenever he commands us to do something, it's so much easier for us just to
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start walking and to just go down the path that he has promised us.
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Because you see, God promises that he will never leave us nor forsake us.
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We read that in Hebrews 13, 5.
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And that we can do all things through his strength. that promise is found in Philippians 4.13.
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We're never alone on the path when we walk down a path unless we let go of God's hands.
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But he promises us, like we read in Deuteronomy 1.30, that he will go before
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us and he will prepare the path for us.
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We need to hold on to the assurance that whatever God asks us to do,
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he will do with us and we will not be alone.
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As we close this study on the book of Deuteronomy chapter one.
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I would ask you to ask the Lord to reveal to your heart the plans that he has for you.
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Ask him to give you the faith to walk the paths that he's clear for you and
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to start walking quickly.
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Because when we obey quickly, we receive the full promise of God.
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Remember, you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
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Music.