Deuteronomy 1! Here we go. Can you see through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers how God is moving throughout history, with a chosen group of people, towards something. He is taking them somewhere. Creating something amazing. Revealing himself.
For years people say the Old Testament is the God of vengeance. He’s angry. He’s this and that. God is loving people, and has a plan to save the whole earth – but what most fail to take into account is the whole thing is a war. It’s a battle. Satan has been against this thing since day one.
And people fall into his trap and turn against God way too easily.
Satan has this ability to flip the script, to turn the argument in the mind of a human, against God.
He is a liar from the beginning, why do we forget that so easily?

Deuteronomy 1-3
Deuteronomy is the culmination of these 40 years of wandering around on this journey ‘until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host (Deut 2:14)
But what fascinates me in Deuteronomy 1 is the recurring mention of ‘Amorites’.
Remember Genesis 15:16 when God said to Abraham, this is what’s going to happen to your seed and the next generations. It’s going to be over 400 years, because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full’
Then we read in Acts 7:6 about those ‘400 years’.
Then in Galatians 3:17, Paul refers to the 430 years…
I love how the bible explains itself, it unveils itself, it brings it all together from God’s perspective for us.
But this deal with the Amorites is something amazing. I’m tracking it.
The other thing I’m tracking is what God calls ‘rebellion’. And how he deals with it. Even with Moses.
It’s actually pretty scary, and I think most of us live in a blissfully ignorant state, note realising that these things are still in play today for God’s children.
In Deut 1 we see the 12 spies went in, the 10 that ‘rebelled’ said ‘ God, what you said is here, the promise is here, BUT.. we don’t like it because we have to fight for it, it’s going to be a war”.
It’s a War.
God. We’re the same aren’t we?
We want God to just hand over the promises. BANG! Like a magician.
We forget we are in a battle. It’s a spiritual battle absolutely – that is where it is fought and won. But it is a battle in this natural world too, and how we conduct ourself, how we believe God, what we say with our mouth, how we engage with faith, how we use the weapons of warfare… this is what God is watching.
He must be longing for his people to really comprehend this stuff. People that are fit for ‘good works’, as Paul states it.
In verse 31, there is beautiful imagery: ‘The Lord bare you like a man bear his son…YET IN THIS THING YE DID NOT BELIEVE THE LORD YOUR GOD’.
How sad.
I bet, for most of us, the testimony is the same.
Do you believe God? It’s always been that we are meant to walk in the Spirit, to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Do we even know how? Most of us hear our carnal mind and say that’s God, God helps us comprehend the dynamic of Holy Spirit lived life?
The beautiful thing that is happening in Deuteronomy 1-3 is that Moses is recounting the story to them all.
In essence Moses knows he is about to die. He knows he can’t cross over into the promise land. God has brought them to the cross over point, Moses is preparing the people. Putting them into remembrance of everything. Prophesying to them.
He recounts the battles, and how God led them – when to fight when not to fight.
He recounts conversations he has had with God, and their outcomes.
He is proclaiming the Lord God over the people, reminding them of their context from Abraham to the promise land.
It’s absolutely stunning. As they say, God is a good God.
God will fight for you, but you are in the battle!
He will fight for you. But you have to fight.
He will give it you. But you have to walk with him to know when to go and when not to go.
Moses what a man! I can’t tell you how impressed I am with this guy. What an example of humility and walking with God.
Did you know in Revelation, they sing the song of Moses?
This guy has a name that will carry through eternity. He is worthy of our attention.
And he says:
‘O Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven and in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? Deuteronomy 3:24
That is my God. That is your God. Do we know him?
