Deuteronomy 32:15: “But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. Thou are waxen fat and thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness, then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation.”

 

Who the blazes is Jeshurun. It appears four times in the Bible and most commenters agree that it is a term of endearment that God uses for Israel.  It means straight or upright.  It has the idea of one mindedness with God.  It is a special affectionate name for Israel like a father calling his daughter princess. It is used when God wants to express his affection for Israel.

 

Last night I was praying and really confessing to God that I had been pretty self-absorbed, full of myself, taking myself too serious. I felt embraced by God and I really believed that as He embraced me He called me a special name. Maybe I imagined it but then maybe I imagined being hugged by God. You know what, I don’t care what you think, I needed that hug from God and if I just imagined it, then I am just imagining that there is a God out and who cares because I am better off for it. Quite frankly I would be a basket case right now if not for that hug and that special name he called me which is none of your business – unbeliever.

 

So, back to my study. Deuteronomy 32:15 starts off with the name Jeshurun and says that this beloved of God had waxed fat and kicked.  You can call it a coincidence that I randomly picked a verse and happened upon one which speaks to my spiritual pride which I battled last night, but for me I am fool enough to believe that God is just confirming my selfishness and pride. What is God talking about waxing fat and kicking?

 

I remember my Uncle Otto who became a farmer when he retired. He once told me something. You can read about it in my book Biblical Truths from Uncle Otto’s Farm.  He said that a well feed cow like Baby Doll (Chapter one in my book) will grow insolent and rebellious and will end up kicking you if you are not careful.  The cow becomes spoiled and demanding.  That appears to be the idea behind this verse. We can grow fat and lazy with God’s blessings and then when he removes one, we begin to whine and kick. Not unlike Chaim Bentorah in recent days.

 

The root word for Jeshurun is yashar which means to be upright or righteous.  In searching out the built in commentary on this word I find the word is spelled Yod Shin and Resh. This combination letters suggest being filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit.  It represents someone or certain people who are chosen by God, given special favor by God to accomplish something for Him. Do you ever get that feeling that God has given you special favor that He has endowed you with a something special from the Holy Spirit to carry out some special task?  Then He has called you Jeshurun. But beware, you could end up like Chaim Bentorah, self-absorbed and proud.  In truth we are all given special favor from God and He has endowed each one of us with something special so we have no room to brag or get smug. We all serve a special role in the body of Christ and none are no more special than the next, not even Chaim Bentorah. I am only serving a role in the body of Christ which is no greater than that little old guy who stays after church to clean up.  Yea, I know that is called communism or socialism, no social classes. Guess who father that idea?  The Jewish Karl Marx had a very serious flaw to his idea, it doesn’t work in a fallen society, and man will still try to one up the other and make himself richer, more educated and better established than another.  It just can’t work and the pieces of the Berlin Wall selling for a fortune on the capitalist market proves it. But  in God’s kingdom it could be no other way.

 

But say, this is not just standing up giving a testimony: “Praise the Lord, God has given me a beautiful house, car etc.” Nor is it giving $10.00 in an offering and then expecting God to return it with $100.00.  If that is the case you will still be God’s Jeshurun but you will end up like Deuteronomy 32:15, fat, spoiled and demanding like the old cow ready to start kicking if something interrupts your comfortable lifestyle. Perhaps that beautiful house, car etc. was given by God for a special purpose beyond your own pleasure. Could it be that God gave me a bestselling book for reasons other than being able to say: “Hey, Hey, Hey, look how God blessed me.” Perhaps He may just decide to let sales take a nose dive.

 

Looking at the Hebrew letters in the word for Jeshurun I notice that the shadow of the Yod, Shin and Resh indicate that you can become ungrounded when you let the passions of this world consume you.  There is a danger to the natural blessings of God and that is to become too attached to them.  As Job said: “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”  (Job 1:21).  C.S. Lewis described how parents will dote on a newborn baby and give it everything it wants.  But when it grows older, much of that attention ceases as that child must learn to find its way. So too as new Christians we probably felt we found a genie in a bottle who granted our every prayer request. As grew older in our relationship with God, however, that attention from God may not seem as intense. Perhaps God is saying: “It is time to look beyond yourself and see a world out there that is in need.” We get so use to God’s constant attention we start to become like the fat old cow and start kicking when we are not getting that immediate response from God. We become too attached to the blessings of God rather than to God Himself.

 

Yet, notice that God is addressing these fat old cows as Jeshurun. Even though we, (I say we, but I am referring to myself) allow ourselves to become fat old cows, kicking and screaming when we are forced out of our comfort zone, God still calls us Jeshurun. Old Baby Doll may have kicked Uncle Otto a few times, but she still remained his Baby Doll. So too with God, we are still His Baby Doll. He may no longer be the celestial genie where our wish is His command. He is a heavenly Father, one with whom we have a love relationship and not a give me relationship.

 

In fact last night I decided to grow up and figure it was time for a little payback to my Heavenly Father. It was time I be about my Father’s business and not building my own little kingdom and having a tantrum when Chaim’s Bridges start falling down.

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