The Exodus: Chosen People

The Exodus: Chosen People Deuteronomy 7:1-11

What is the biggest blessing you ever recieved from God? It could be your spouse, your kids, a career you love. Maybe you have a special talent that brings you and others whom you share it with joy? Maybe it is to be alive!

I bet that if you look at your biggest blessing, or that one thing near the top of the list of your blessings, you will find that you did some work for it, that this blessing wasn’t completely free.

We talk about God’s faithfulness and goodness. We know that God gives us good gifts and has plans to prosper us; but nothing is just handed over to us on a silver platter.

Now that I have your attention, let me explain. Let’s say that your biggest blessing is a talent of yours. Do you not work on it consistently, trying to get better or stretch your talent a little? I don’t know a musician, a painter, a sculptor, a writer, actor, or a dancer that doesn’t use their craft. As a matter of fact, I have heard and witnessed what happens to someone who doesn’t use their gifts for a long period of time. Those gifts become harder to use and the person is not as good as they once were.

Listen, God provides a way to our blessings and clears the way for us to receive amazing things. Yet, we have to walk though it to get to our blessings.

If you remember, we were in Exodus for a long time. The book of Exodus was only the beginning. The Hebrew people spent 40 years in the wilderness and their journey encompasses four of the five books in the Old Testament that are called the Torah. Next week we will end our time studying the Exodus. But for now, let us look at the time in the wilderness as it comes to an end.

Pray and read Deuteronomy 7:1-11

Deuteronomy 7:1–11 NRSV

When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you— and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession. It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him. Therefore, observe diligently the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that I am commanding you today.

Don’t get lost on the fact that God is telling the Israelites to destroy seven nations. Yes, God said it and He meant it. But, that is the details of what God is telling them to do that are important.

Here is the Truth:

It says in verse one, Moses tells the people that God is bringing them into the land that God promised them. We have heard this many times. It literally means that this land already belongs to them, even if they don’t live there yet. Also, that God is clearing a way for them to enter the land. But they still have some hard work ahead of them.

God is giving them providence. Providence means:

Providence: God Provides

Providence

■ noun

1 the protective care of God or of nature as a spiritual power.

▶ (Providence) God or nature as providing such care.

2 timely preparation for future eventualities.

—ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French, from Latin providentia, from providere (see PROVIDE).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary Provide

provide

■ verb

1 make available for use; supply.

▶ (provide someone with) equip or supply someone with.

2 (provide for) make adequate preparation or arrangements for.

▶ (of a law) enable or allow (something to be done).

3 stipulate in a will or other legal document.

4 (provide someone to) Christian Church, historical appoint an incumbent to (a benefice).

—DERIVATIVES provider noun

—ORIGIN Middle English: from Latin providere ‘foresee, attend to’.

Soanes, C., & Stevenson, A. (Eds.). (2004). Concise Oxford English dictionary (11th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

So God was providing them everything they needed to go into what was and will be their land. However, they were going into battle. Not a war with another nation, but against seven different nations. They were told up front that they were going to win against these nations. They were going to take this land. But they still had to fight for it. I am sure there were deaths, sacrifices and hard times. Actually, that is what Joshua’s book is all about. Even through the hard times, and the times where the Israelites went away from God, God still kept His promise.

They were to go into the land they were promised, with no reservations. They were called to have no fear, and no questions or insecurities. But do you think that they had no fear? Really, how would you feel if you knew that you would have to walk through seven trials to fully experience the blessing that was waiting for you? We need to understand that God provides all we need but we actually have to walk into our blessing.

Here is another thing that is interesting. God chose to bless the Israelites not because they were strong already or had everything together. It was quite the opposite. They were the lowest of the people on the earth. Yet God chose to bless them. It was to show them and everyone what God can do with those who have nothing to be seen, yet give everything to God. God chose you too. God chose you not in spite of but because of your brokenness, your hard life experiences, and your stories of grace and survival. If you love him and do the will of God, God will bless you all the more. God’s blessings are not to just help us out. They are a covenant. The more God gives you, the more you give to others, the more God gives you in return; and the cycle continues.

Are you ready to receive God’s blessings on your life, even though their may be some up front risks? Even if you do not know what all may be in store? Do you believe that God chose you to be His? God calls you son or daughter, and that is a huge blessing. But what are you going to do with that blessing?

Blessings are meaningless if they are not being used. What is holding you back? Life is full of challenges. But we can’t hide from those challenges. If you know there is more in store, that you are expecting a blessing, then keep walking through the trials. Seven nation armies could not hold God’s people from entering their home. Don’t let the bad, or the spiritual forces of evil deter you from achieving and obtaining all that God has promised you. Walk through the fire, being refined by it; shining bright with the Light of God.

In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen