#DailyDevotion Don’t Be Like The Unbelieving Israelites. Trust Jesus And Enter The Promised Land

September 28

Deut 1:1–18

Deu 1:3  In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them,…5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying,…8 See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’

 

It was the fortieth year. Fortieth year since what? Since the Israelites demonstrated their lack of faith in the Lord, the God of Israel to take the promised land after the spies reported all that they saw there. The Lord told them none of them would make into the promised land except Caleb and Joshua who tried to encourage the people to take it because the Lord was with them.

 

Now that generation had all died off. Moses was instructing the people into the way of the Lord. He was teaching them all that the Lord had revealed and taught to him. They would need to know these things if they were going to live peacefully in the land the Lord had promised their forefathers.

 

This land the Lord had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as they sojourned in the land.  The Lord initiated covenant with the three patriarchs that their descendents would inherit the land. And why was the Lord giving the land to them? Because the people there were very wicked. The three patriarchs were preachers of righteousness and they preached to the inhabitants concerning the Lord God. Yet the people there did not repent of their sins. They did not turn and worship the Lord. Neither did their descendents after them while Israel was in exile in the land of Egypt. No, they multiplied their sins. Now the Lord was going to use the Israelites to wipe these peoples off the face of the earth because of their sinfulness and was going to give the land to the Israelites as he promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was a foretelling of the last day, the day of judgment of the whole earth.

 

We who are Christians also stand in the place of Israel as we are joined to the true Israel, Jesus Christ. We are taught regularly by those who stand in the place of Christ, our parents and our pastors what God wants of us. He wants us to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants us to trust Jesus has reconciled us to the Father and is preparing a new Promised Land, the new heavens and the new earth. We shall not enter it until the fullness of sins has reached it tipping point and all the elect of God have come to faith in Jesus Christ. On that day, even as the Israelites came and conquered the land of Canaan the angels shall come and take out all those who have rebelled against the Lord Jesus Christ and did not come to faith in the Church’s teaching. The meek, i.e. Christians, shall inherit the earth and we will dwell with the Lord forever. The dead in Christ will rise from their graves and those standing there shall be changed. Jesus shall judge the nations and cast all who rejected him into outer darkness. Those who trusted in his message, even in his name shall live in his light forever.

 

Heavenly Father, even as you let those Israelites who were faithful to your name enter into the Promised Land, ever keep us faithful to your Son Jesus Christ, that we may enter the Promised Land, the new heavens and new earth on the day of Jesus’ return. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.