D'VARIM - Blind to God's Love

There have been plenty of times in my life where I was blind to the reality underneath what I perceive. One moment that particularly sticks out in my mind is when my son Isaac was still in the womb and we learned that his doctors found an abnormality in his heartbeat. They didn’t know if it was benign or a possible health issue; they had encouraged us to get more testing and I can remember vividly the day we had a fetal echo done and the conclusion was that all we could do was wait to find out the answer. It tore my heart, here I was, the father to this child and I was powerless to help him. All I had were tears to offer. My perception was fear and because of that I had no capacity to see past the here and now; the heart arrhythmia ended up being a part of Isaac’s heart growing and nothing was ever a real threat but my perception made that pseudo-danger a real, overshadowing vulnerability.

D’varim starts with the perception of the Israelites as Moses interacts with it. Moses speaks of the weight of having to manage this nation with their bickering; about how even though God told them about how He was giving them the land of the Amorites, the people did not trust but rather requested spies to scout out the land. God said “Fear Not” but the people could not see past the perception of the reality in front of them. The spies reported that the land was good and that God was giving it to them but Israel (which means fighting with God) still refused and instead described what they thought to be true; that God hates us, that the Amorites will wipe them out, that the men there are stronger, taller, have large cities and protective walls.

Moses pleaded the true reality to them that the God who brought them out of slavery would go before them and will fight for them. Moses than gives this picture of God:

“The LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you traveled until you came to this place. Yet for all that, you have no faith in the LORD your God, who goes before you on your journeys—to scout the place where you are to encamp—in fire by night and in cloud by day, in order to guide you on the route that you are to follow.” Deuteronomy 1:31-33

In spite of that reality, the people complained and because of that God punishes them. The punishment comes from an anger that the people will not learn to trust God and trust His love for them. The people have become blind to God’s love and if they are to be His people and a witness to the nations of what God is like, He needs them to learn real quick and so God decides that this generation has failed. Their failure to love God keeps them from the Promised Land they were to inherit, they are sent to die in the wilderness and their children are given a chance to show their love and commitment to God. (This story gives illustration to believers today, we fail to love God in spite of the love that He lavishes on us, we have been promised a full life that starts with trust in God and runs on for eternity but if we fail to trust and are unable to love God, we die in the desert.)

There is one verse I find really amazing, God reverses the words that Israel spoke in their complaining, “Moreover, your little ones who you said would be carried off, your children who do not yet know good from bad, they shall enter it; to them will I give it and they shall posses it.” Essentially the curse that the people spoke over their lives, God takes and creates blessing. He seems to be saying “YOU can’t see past your next complaint! I, THE LORD, see not only past hardship but can create peace out of it.”

The story continues with Moses leading the people back into the wilderness and in their journeys they pass through the land of Esau and they are commanded to be a blessing, to pay for whatever they eat or drink and to not provoke them. They than travel through Moab and are told the same thing, than the same with the land of the Ammonites. During this wandering, the generation who did not believe died off. It is at this point that God begins to send His people into battle and puts the fear of the name Israel into the nations. Israel attempts to move peacefully through the land of King Sihon but instead he and his men took to battle with Israel and because God was with His people, Israel was victorious. Israel than captures all of their towns, kills all the inhabitants and takes for themselves the cattle and spoils of the cities. The same fate is handed to King Og of Bashan and other territories.

I have to admit here that these stories of war tend to define my perception of reality. They inform my concept of what God is like, a God of war and bloodshed, a God who sheds no mercy for the women and children of foreign lands and this concerns me. I believe that if I cannot step back and allow God to give me a broader picture of the situation, I will simply complain over His apparent lack of compassion. But if I allow the reality set in, that these people themselves lacked mercy, that the gods they served were horrendously evil, demanding child sacrifice, pagan rituals and hostility toward other nations. If I allow myself to understand that god knows what destiny these people have if they are spared and what atrocity they would be allowed to enact; than I can start to take back my eyesight and perceive the God who was always there, a God who acts justly and judges rightly. He is a God who stands up for the sanctity of humanity and fights against those who threaten to be a manifestation of humanity’s curse.

I end this portion study with the final verses of D’Varim, God is speaking to Joshua now, saying “You have seen with your own eyes all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings; so shall the LORD do to all the kingdoms into which you shall cross over. Do not fear them, for it is the LORD your God who will battle for you.” It is not Israel who acts as judge over the cities to be destroyed, it is God who punishes the wicked and battles for what is right. Today we do not fight against cities and nations whose actions are opposed to God’s will, this was not the primary role of Israel either, we, as they were, are in a position where God appoints us to be a light that draws the nations out of darkness. Our enemy is the principalities and powers of evil and in a real way God is still going before us to battle and we follow and fight.