Spiritual feast 12.6. February 3, 2012.
Scriptures for this study:
Deu.8:1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today,
so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land
that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers.
8:2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these 40 years,
to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart,
whether or not you would keep his commands.
***8:3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna,
which neither you nor your fathers had known,
to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
8:4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during 40 years.
8:5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
8:6 Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him.
8:7-9 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land--
a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills;
a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey;
a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing;
a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
8:10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.
8:11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands,
his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.
8:12-17 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,
and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied,
then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God,
who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land,
with its venomous snakes and scorpions.
He brought you water out of hard rock.
He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known,
to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me."
8:18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth,
and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
8:19-20 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them,
I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.
Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.
***Deu 11:18
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds;
tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
11:19 Teach them to your children, talking about them
when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,
when you lie down and when you get up.
11:20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,
11:21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land
that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
11:22-25 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow--
to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him--
then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you,
and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.
Every place where you set your foot will be yours:
Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon,
and from the Euphrates River to the western sea.
No man will be able to stand against you.
The LORD your God, as he promised you,
will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land wherever you go.
11:26-28 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse--
the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today;
the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way
that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
Deu.6:13-15 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.
Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;
for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you,
and he will destroy you from the face of the land.
Deu.7:4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods,
and the Lord's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
Joshua 23:16 If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you,
and go and serve other gods and bow down to them,
the Lord's anger will burn against you,
and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.
Deu.28:58-61If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law,
which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name--
the LORD your God-- the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants,
harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses.
He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.
The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law,
until you are destroyed.
Deu.28:62-63 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number,
because you did not obey the LORD your God.
Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number,
so it will please him to ruin and destroy you.
You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
Deu.28:64-68 Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other.
There you will worship other gods-- gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot.
There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.
You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life.
In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening!"
and in the evening, "If only it were morning!"
-- because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.
The LORD will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again.
There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves,
but no one will buy you.