Deuteronomy 9:5: “Not for the righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart do you go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations and that he may perform the word which the Lord confirmed unto thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
It doesn’t take a deep study into the Hebrew to get the literal message of this verse. God was not bringing the children of Israel into the Promised Land because they were good people, but because he made a promise to their fathers. God is bringing this to pass for only one reason, he is being true to His word. The fulfillment of His promise is not dependent upon one’s righteousness but upon the Word of God.
My book has been released, I should be happy, excited, instead I am worried, fretting, “What if the book doesn’t sell, what if the reviews are all negative, what if people find out I am not as smart as I make myself out to be?” I even find myself praying: “Lord, did you take me this far just to end up in failure?”
Who do I sound like? I sound like the children of Israel ready to enter the Promised Land only to be confronted by the giants. “Did God take us out of Egypt only to have our heads loped off by the children of the Anakims?” Yes, Israel was a stiffnecked people, and maybe should have had that neck on the chopping block. Like me they could only see one way and that was the way of the natural world. Yes, in the natural world the children of the Anakims would make short work of the armies of Israel, nothing left but a grease spot. Anak was a giant whose descendents were giants. Not Jack and the Beanstalk giants but more like your average professional basketball player or NFL player. The average height of a male in the Middle East about this time was around 5’3.” So you can imagine if the Chicago Bears were transported back to the Promised Land around this time, they would look like giants to the Israelites. Of course only the twelve spies saw these Anakims and legends abounded about them so when it was reported to children of Israel that there were giants or Anakims in the land you can bet their imaginations played some wonderful tricks on them and this struck terror in their hearts.
Well back to my woeful situation. I have wandered through the wilderness for many years now. By virtue of my age I should be approaching the Promised Land after three score and six years, don’t you think? So I scout out my Promised Land and bam, I get hit with the Anakim of doubt, fear, and lack of confidence. I have 66 years of seeking to walk with God, seeing miracles and deliverances. God gave me jobs at just the right moment, God provided in ways I never dreamed and now I face an Anakim and like Israel I wonder if God brought me all this way just to throw me under my disability bus.
My first thought is that I have sin in my life. So I start a cleanup campaign. That is a very righteous thing to do. I go on a fast, that too is a righteous act. I only break the fast to have communion with God, that is a righteous thing. I am praying a lot more, studying the Word a lot more, that is righteous. Now I can sit back and surely God will say: “Oy, Chaim, what good things you’ve done for me, come, come, let me make your book a Best Seller.”
But God is telling me in Deuteronomy 9:5 that it is not my righteousness or my uprighteous heart that will bring about any blessings like a Best Seller. The word uprighteous is yasar which is to be straight or even. This is more than just doing good things, for God, but having a heart with the right motive. I am not just having communion with God to bribe Him into making my book a success, but I am also doing it because I enjoy that time with Him. Yet still if God chooses to keep me from being a failure that is not the reason He will do it. He will do it to keep His promise. His promise to me is that I will complete my journey to His heart, that I will understand and know His heart like David knew His heart. God will do whatever it takes to fulfill that promise, and if it takes a successful book to do it or for my book to be a bust, He will choose whatever way that will draw me into His heart and thereby confirm His Word to me. The word confirm is qum. This is a word used for engraving, imagining, or to portray. Actually it is a legal term. When a law is passed it is ratified. It is engraved, it is set in stone so to speak. God will keep his promise because it is set in stone and he will do it righteousness or no righteousness and to let the world know that He is not a celestial welcher.
So my ship is sinking. When the disciples were in a storm and their ship was sinking, Jesus calmed the storm. However, when Paul was in a storm and his ship was sinking, it sunk, but everyone survived. Maybe God will calm the storm and I will have Best Seller and my ship won’t sank. Maybe this time I will be like Paul and the ship will sink, but I still have the promise that I will survive and find God’s heart.
You know, suppose the boat sunk for the disciples. What would Jesus have done? Would he have transported himself to dry land? I doubt it, I think he would have been treading water right there with His disciples. When Paul’s ship sunk, I believe Jesus was treading water right there with Paul. If my ship sinks, I know Jesus will be right there treading water with me. After all, we have a deal, and the end result is that I will know His heart.
By the way, remember the Anakims? Check out Joshua 15:13. Caleb, the spy, who with Joshua, said” “Hey, giants or no giants, God gave us this land, let’s go get it” 40 years later, as an older man in his 80’s he made short work of the Anakims.
Recent Comments