Day 568: The danger of fullness - Deuteronomy 32 vs 15 - 28

15 But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God  who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. 16-17 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You were unmindful of the Rock that fathered you, and you  forgot the God who gave you birth.

19-20 The Lord saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. And he said, “I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be - for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. 21-25 They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. And I will heap disasters upon them; I will expend my arrows on them; they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust. Outdoors the sword shall bereave, and indoors terror, for young man and woman alike,  the nursing child with the man of grey hairs.”

26-28 “I would have said, 'I will cut them to pieces; I will wipe them from human memory,' had I not feared provocation by the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, 'Our hand is triumphant, it was not the Lord who did all this.' For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.” Deuteronomy 32:15-28 (English Standard Version)

Today's verses are still part of the 'song' Moses taught the Israelites as they prepared to enter the promised land. What was the great danger God enabled Moses to foresee? (vs 15 & 18)

Jeshurun was like a fond name for Israel. But they were going to become morally obese. As they settled down in the land and their barns became full and life was easy, they forgot their daily need of God. They forgot who it was that had given them their very existence. Worse still, they became attracted to the demonic rituals of the nations who they were meant to have driven out of the land. (vs 16-17) So what was God's response to this spiritual adultery going to be? (vs 18-20)

He was going to withdraw His protection and care. Verses 21-25 describe what that would lead to. God was going to use foreigners to bring great distress upon them. We see from those verses the serious consequences of rebellion and sin. In fact, Israel might easily have been totally destroyed and wiped off the planet. What does God say was one of the reasons why He didn't let that happen? (vs 26-27)

The nations He had used to discipline Israel, in their ignorance, would think and boast that it was their own might that had won the victory over God's people. It would've made it look like God was weaker than the demon gods the nations worshipped. That should encourage us because it means God also won't let Satan get victory over those whom He has saved in Jesus Christ.

Two short applications. Firstly, many years later the apostle Paul said that God's use of foreigners to rebuke Israel was still happening in the days when gentiles were being saved while many Jewish people were rejecting the gospel. God was making them jealous by pouring out His salvation on the foreign gentile nations. (That's what Romans 9-11 is all about.)

Secondly, those of us who live in countries where there's little persecution and we have an abundance of food and comfortable things, need to take care that we don't forget our total dependency on God's grace. Jesus taught the disciples to look to God daily for their bread, and for forgiveness of sins. Bread mustn't be limited to our physical needs. Christ referred to Himself as the bread of life. We need Jesus to live in us every hour of the day, and for always.