Belly Laughs

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My current Old Testament progress:
Deuteronomy 16
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I am enjoying Deuteronomy way too much, I think.

Last night, while my husband was trying to trudge through the last dozen or so chapters of Exodus, I was interrupting him to share stories that I found funny--and even hilarious--about where I was reading.

Deuteronomy 1 gives more insight into why the Israelites had to wander for forty years. We learned earlier that all the spies, save Caleb and Joshua, had seen the promised land and returned with reports of the sons of the Anakims (giants) and how the walls of the cities reached to heaven and there was just no way they could defeat them. So the people rebelled and were told to stay in the wilderness until all of them who were 20 and older had died.

Well, now we learn why the Lord was so harsh with them, a story that I thought was so funny and so typical of my little kids.

"And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us" (Deut. 1:27, emphasis mine).

Are you kidding me? That would kindle my anger, too. Man, the ungrateful little wretches. (Did I say that?) As the Lord said in 2:7, "[T]hese forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing." It must have been nice! Bread from heaven, quail, water from rocks...

Anyway, back to the story.

So God tells them that they have to wander in the wilderness for forty years and only their children will make it to the promised land. All of a sudden they change their tune.

"We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us. And ... girded on every man his weapons of war, ... ready to go up into the hill" (Deut. 1:41).

Moses warned them, saying:

"Go not up, neither fight; for I [the Lord] am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies" (Deut. 1:42).

Did they listen? Of course not. They went presumptuously up into the hill and the Amorites chased them as bees do and destroyed them.

Why couldn't they have just followed the Lord's commandment in the first place instead of trying to prove, when it was much too late, that they really were willing to follow him?

Another story that I really enjoyed was of the Lord's counsel to the Israelites regarding driving out the other nations from Canaan. He lets them know that He is with them, but also counsels them in chapter 9:

"4. Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.

"5. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

"6. Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people."

Then he lays it all out on the line!

"7. Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD."

But he doesn't stop there. He continues to point out example after example after example of this. Then Moses again states:

"24. Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you."

Fortunately for them, the Lord keeps his promises. He promised Isaac and Jacob that their seed would inherit the land, and despite their rebelliousness, the Lord fulfills that promise. Now, Moses does let them know that it might be short-lived (as it was) in Deuteronomy 4:23-28:

"Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.

"For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

"When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger:

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

"And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

"And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell."

Amidst all of this censuring and counsel came numerous blessings as well. In chapter 7 they were promised that no people or flocks would be barren, that the Lord would take away from them all sickness (something that I'd LOVE), and that the Lord would deliver them from all people--but slowly so that the wild animals wouldn't grow too numerous and overpower the Israelites.

In chapter 8 they were promised a good land:

"For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;

"A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;

"A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass."

It grated on me that they were so blessed (their clothing didn't even wear out--after forty years in the wilderness, they still had the original clothing), yet so rebellious. But the Lord had to keep his promise to their righteous fathers. However, he didn't have to leave them in the promised land long. We all know that ten tribes are lost, and have been for some time, and will not be restored until the very last days.


Although I skipped over it this time, and only alluded to it last time, there is some beautiful counsel in these chapters that I love, and I wanted to at least give a few links today:

Deut. 4:6-7: Israel is a great nation
Deut. 4:9: Teach your children
Deut. 4:29-31: Seek the Lord and you will find Him
Deut. 6:20-25: Teach your children
Deut. 11:19: How to teach your children

Technorati: Old Testament, Deuteronomy, Israelites, Moses