Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Deuteronomy 11:13-17.

“It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil.  He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.  Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them.  Or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit;  and you will perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.”  Deuteronomy 11:13-17.

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“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:  the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am commanding you today;  and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.”  Deuteronomy 11:26-28.

But, there is hope!

In the following Benediction (blessing) by Solomon, “He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments”.

“Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised;  not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.  May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers;  may He not leave us or forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, which He commanded our fathers.”  1 Kings 8:56-58.

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;  and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.  You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers;  so you will be My people, and I will be your God.  Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness;  and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you.  I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations.”  Ezekiel 36:26-30. 

“Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples.
2 Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;
Speak of all His wonders.
3 Glory in His holy name;
Let the heart of those who seek the LORD be glad.
4 Seek the LORD and His strength;
Seek His face continually.
5 Remember His wonders which He has done,
His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth,
6 O seed of Abraham, His servant,
O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!” Psalm 105:1-6.

Today’s devotion comes from Deuteronomy 11:1-7.

“You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.  Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the LORD your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm, and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land;  and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the Red Sea to engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the LORD completely destroyed them;  and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place;  and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, among all Israel— but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD which He did.”  Deuteronomy 11:1-7.

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There is a well-accepted saying:  “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

And, parents are well aware of what their children plea when they did something wrong:  “I didn’t know!”

Moses is cutting that excuse in the bud by his statements in the beginning and at the end of today’s Scripture.  

In the beginning, he states:  “Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the LORD your God—His greatness, …”.

At the end, he summarizes:  “… your own eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD which He did.” 

The lesson for us today is that we too, through God’s Word, so to speak, “have seen all the great work of the LORD which He did.”  In addition, we too have personally experienced the instruction and discipline of the LORD.

With that blessing comes an accountability.  We do not have an excuse to plea:  “I didn’t know!” 

“For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.  For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;  but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.”  Hebrews 6:4-8.

But, there is hope!

“But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.  For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.  And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.”  And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.  For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute.  In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”  Hebrews 6:9-20. 

Today’s devotion comes from Deuteronomy 8:11-20.

“Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today;  otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water;  He brought water for you out of the rock of flint.  In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end.  Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’  But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.  It shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.  Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish;  because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.”  Deuteronomy 8:11-20.

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The LORD did not just give a general warning.  Later, the LORD gave a specific prophecy about what He would do to Jerusalem.  The purpose of including this following Scripture is that we may think that God’s warning just applies to others and not take it to heart.  “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”  1 Corinthians 10:12.  

“Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘This is Jerusalem;  I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her.  But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her;  for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’  Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’ therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.  And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again.  Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers;  for I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.  So as I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare.  One third of you will die by plague or be consumed by famine among you, one third will fall by the sword around you, and one third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.”  Ezekiel 5:5-12.

As horrific as the plague, famine, and war are, hell is much, much worse.  “But I will warn you whom to fear:  fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell;  yes, I tell you, fear Him!”  Luke 12:5. 

But, there is hope!

Other doctrine gives a hope based on man’s works and man’s will.

But, Reformed Doctrine gives the hope based on Scripture that the sovereign Almighty LORD will do all that is necessary to save His elect, His chosen people.  “For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.”  So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” Romans 9:15-16.

“16 And He saw that there was no man,
And was astonished that there was no one to intercede;
Then His own arm brought salvation to Him,
And His righteousness upheld Him.
17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing
And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.
18 According to their deeds, so He will repay,
Wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies;
To the coastlands He will make recompense.
19 So they will fear the name of the LORD from the west
And His glory from the rising of the sun,
For He will come like a rushing stream
Which the wind of the LORD drives.
20 “A Redeemer will come to Zion,
And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” declares the LORD.

“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD:  “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.”  Isaiah 59:16-21.