Clinging to God

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Throughout Deuteronomy, Moses continues to command the children of Israel to obey the

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terms of their covenant with God, and in return they would be blessed.

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The choice is theirs, whether to live such a life away as to enjoy blessing or to live

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under a curse.

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But their obedience was not about simple legalistic ritual.

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It was about the heart, and it was about clinging to their God with a heart of love.

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So welcome to this week's Shabbat Shalom devotional, when I seek to share a little inspiration,

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bring a little peace to the close of your very busy week.

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This week's Torah portion is found in Deuteronomy 11, verse 26, through chapter 16, verse 17.

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It's called Re'e, which means see, as in see this day I set before you.

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So the beautiful book of Deuteronomy, it's focusing on a heart of obedience, not legalistic

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ritual.

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So in chapter 11, verse 23 through 25, is when Moses makes this very clear.

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Let's read.

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For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do, to love the Lord

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your God, to walk in His ways, and to hold fast to Him, then the Lord will drive out

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all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations

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than yourselves.

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Every place on which the soul of your foot treads shall be yours, from the wilderness

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and Lebanon, from the river and the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be

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your territory.

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No man shall be able to stand against you.

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The Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where

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you tread, just as He has said to you.

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Wow, that's quite a big promise of blessing.

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Now the choice was theirs, blessing or curse.

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And in verse 26 it says, behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse.

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So just as it was in the Garden of Eden, it was then and it is today, it is always our

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choice.

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Their disobedience was actually seen as betrayal of God, of turning from God to follow the

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ways of other gods.

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And so Moses goes on now to begin to prescribe to them a way of worship.

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And he tells them, when you go in, destroy the pagan worship sites.

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Do not use them, but worship in the place that God will choose.

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Verse five, but you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses out of all your

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tribes to put His name for His dwelling place and there you will go.

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Moses tells them 11 different times what to do in quote, the place God chooses, end of

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quote, for them to meet.

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So interesting because they were not yet in the land.

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They were not yet in Jerusalem, which later we know God chose Jerusalem.

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But they're still in the wilderness.

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And it's not for another 400 years maybe before Jerusalem is established as the capital and

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God makes it clear this is the place that I have chosen.

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Isn't that interesting?

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But here Moses tells them one day God is going to choose that place.

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It's all wrapped up with them entering the land.

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Very interesting point here is that he says it's the place where his name will be written

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into the very topography of Jerusalem is a Hebrew letter sheen which stands for the name

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of God Shaddai or even Shem which is name.

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It's written into the topography.

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So now Moses reviews with them the feast, the feast of Passover, Shavuot, Tabernacles

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and he begins to connect it to how they're going to celebrate those feasts once they're

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in the land and it says that they will go up to the place that God will choose.

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And then he warns them about apostasy taking on the practices of the pagan world around

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them.

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And then he explains why such a warning.

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Let's read 14 verses one through two.

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You are the children of the Lord your God.

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For you are a holy people to the Lord your God and the Lord has chosen you to be a people

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for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

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Well, what a magnificent calling that is.

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But it came with responsibility to properly carry out the terms.

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They were to hold fast to him with all their heart.

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If they clung to the Lord with a heart of love, then everything else would fall into

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place.

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Think about that this weekend.

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And with that I wish you Shabbat Shalom.