What Have We Got Ourselves Into?

Deuteronomy 4:25-31

There was one day at the prison that I observed contraband being passed. Being the fearless (stupid) officer that I was, I moved to the back of the dormitory to intercept it. Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by 20+ inmates. I called the code for assistance and thought, “What have I got myself into?” Obviously, it all turned out ok, but I wasn’t sure that it would be ok for a few tense moments.

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“When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them."

Deuteronomy 4:25-31

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Notice how Moses starts this section; “When…”. He did not say “If”. He spoke of what he was about to describe with certainty. He was telling them that, as a nation, they would rebel against God. It was only a matter of time. We do the same thing today. We talk about America turning away from God. I would give one admonition: just because others are turning away from God does not mean you have to be a part of it. We can choose to be faithful even if no one around us is.

Israel’s turning to idol worship would lead to their going into captivity. In captivity they would want to turn to God, but would be forced to worship pagan idols. They would be scattered all over the world. They would be mistreated. In their desperation they would cry out to God.

So often we do the same thing. When things are going our way we do not need God. Suddenly we find ourselves in a mess, and we want to know where God went. In reality, God did not go anywhere. We walked away from Him. We get ourselves into messes and then blame God for allowing us to get there.

This passage ends with Moses saying, when you repent and turn back to God, He will hear you. He will not forsake you nor destroy you. He will remember His covenant with your ancestors. Why? Moses says, “For the Lord your God is a merciful God”. People often describe God as judgmental, cruel, and unfair. Moses said He is merciful. If we take the time to look for God in our messes, we will often find Him working to redeem our crises.

The key to never feeling like we have lost God, is to never walk away from Him. This is hard to do perfectly because we all let this world distract us to some degree. When we find that we have drifted, we need to run back to Him. If we find that we cannot run back because it feels like we have been carried off into a foreign land, we must cry out to God. For Israel, this was a literal exile from their homes. For us, it may be less geographical and more emotional. Regardless, we can cry out to God and trust that He is merciful and will hear us.

One final thought. Israel cried out to God, but their deliverance was not immediate. God allowed them to stay until their lesson was learned. This was true in Egypt. It was true in the wilderness after the Exodus. It was true of the Babylonian and Persian captivity. God wants us to be obedient, not to say a flippant "I'm sorry", knowing we will do the same thing over again once things go our way.

Father, we can be so stubborn and rebellious. We want to do things our way without consequences. When we are faced with the consequences of our actions, we tend to make shallow promises. Help us to learn obedience without a form of captivity. Help us to learn obedience because we choose to love You of our own free will.