Choices

Day 53

Reading: Deut. 5:1- Deut. 7:26

The Lord spoke face to face is an awesome statement that reveals how much God loves us. The Covenant of the Law was different from the Abrahamic covenant in how it was presented. Moses declares that God didn't make this covenant with the fathers. He appeared to the children of Israel and spoke to them. God declared the Ten Commandments on which the entire law hinged or revolved. God wrote these Ten Commandments on two tablets of stones.

The Ten Commandments:

1. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4. Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.
5. Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbour’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s.’

I know many today will say that the Ten Commandments are not relevant because we live in a different dispensation. However, they provide a good moral code of conduct towards God and other human beings. I am not advocating for religion however, Christianity is not without guidance and the Ten Commandments provide good guidance on expectations from God.

When God spoke to the people and they heard His voice through the fire they saw, they trembled and asked Moses to speak with God and then tell them. This was one of the saddest things they could do. God desired to relate to them, however, they didn't want a direct relationship with him. They prefered a proxy to represent them. Many believers today want others to hear God for them. No wonder the church is weak. Desire to hear God constantly. God's desire is that our hearts are filled with awe of Him. The fear of the Lord will empower one to keep His commandments and walk uprightly all the days. 

The greatest commandment is revealed in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4. God desires, expects and commanded that He is to be loved with all of our being. To love God is the greatest commandment.  Loving God would then translate to not only walking in obedience but also in teaching our children the statutes, commandments and instructions of God. Obedience to the commandments of God as we saw yesterday would only result in good for the children of Israel.

Today as I read this portion of scripture my heart was convicted of so many things. One of them was that God desires to give me things that I don't necessarily have the experience making. The children of Israel would possess homes, cities, vineyards that they didn't plant or make. Charles, don't limit yourself to accessing jobs, businesses, openings in life that are at the introductory, entry, junior, beginner life cycle. God can cause you to possess what others have laboured for so that you enjoy the fruit.  Now that is what favour can do and it ain't fair. 

God didn't choose the children of Israel because of size, colour or anything but love. I am chosen by God because of His love. Because of God's love towards me and His display of the saving grace to move me from Egypt to the promised land I am holy and cannot entertain ungodly yokes. I cannot be yoked with one who's not in a relationship with God. To keep seeing God be careful who you enter relationship with.

God keeps mercy for a thousand generations whilst He remembers the iniquities of fathers to the third or fourth generation. Mercy goes further than judgement. Remember to walk before God wholeheartedly loving Him and you will see His mercy continually. 

Memory Verse: Deut. 6:4

Decree:  

Personalise it as you declare this portion of scripture aloud. 

“Then it shall come to pass Charles, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. Deut. 7:12-16( italics mine)