Paula Wiseman

Faith and life meet in a story

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How God kept His promises to Moab, Ammon, and Edom and why that matters to you

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You must not fear them, for the LORD your God Himself fights for you. Deuteronomy 3:22

Deuteronomy. I love the book of Deuteronomy. Really. In Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, things are very formal, very didactic, but in Deuteronomy, Moses speaks from his heart to Israel. He’s candid, even blunt, but his genuine love for the people he has shepherded is evident in every passage. In chapter 2, he encourages Israel with a recounting of their journey. But there is a story under the story.

  • In v. 5, 12, and 22, God says I have given Mount Seir to Esau’s descendants. There were giants, but God drove them out.
  • In v. 9-11, God gave the land of Moab to the descendants of Lot. There were giants, but God drove them out.
  • In v. 19-22, God gave the land of Ammon to the descendants of Lot. There were giants, but God drove them out.

See the pattern? God made a promise of land and obligated Himself to deliver on that promise, even if it meant dealing with giants on the recipients’ behalf. But did you notice these were heathens? Edom, Ammon, and Moab didn’t follow God or His laws. In fact, later God would say that a Moabite or an Ammonite could never enter the congregation of Israel. (Deut 27:3)

Think about that for a moment … God made and kept promises to heathens. Why would He do that? I think there are a few reasons.

  • God is incredibly gracious. Even those who have no use for Him experience a measure of His grace.
  • God is working out His larger plan on behalf of the people He favors. He raises up and brings down kings and kingdoms.
  • God is teaching Israel about His character.

Israel had just spent 40 years in the desert because they refused to believe God’s promise to them. They needed reassurance and reaffirmation before possessing the land. So God gently explains how things work.

If God will keep His word to unbelievers, if He went before the Ammonites and the Moabites and the Edomites to ensure they receive what He has promised, how much more will He act on behalf of His own people, the people He called out, and redeemed?

As followers of Christ, we are a people God has called out and redeemed. He will keep His promises to us. He will go before us. He will act on our behalf. Let’s resolve not to be like Israel by refusing to believe Him.

Are there promises of God you have trouble believing?

 

 

 

 

When Listening to God Is Hard

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So Moses told the people of Israel what the LORD had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery. Exodus 6:9 NLT

I’m sure you’re familiar with the story of Israel’s bondage and deliverance. Moses has made his first appearance because Pharaoh and the response was an intensification of the burden placed on the people. In Exodus 5:22-23, Moses returns to God with questions, nearly accusations. In summary, Moses said, “I did what you said, and things are worse, not better.” God responds with seven amazing promises He had committed Himself to:

  • “I will bring you out.”
  • “I will rescue you from bondage.”
  • “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.”
  • “I will take you as My people.”
  • “I will be your God.”
  • “I will bring you into the land which I swore to give.”
  • “I will give it to you as a heritage.”

When Moses relayed God’s message, the people of Israel wouldn’t listen. You can almost hear them- No Moses, we dared to hope things would change and look what happened. It’s worse now. I don’t have the emotional energy to believe anymore. It takes everything I have just to get through each day.

Perhaps we hear them so vividly because we echo them. We sometimes reach the place where, because of the challenges and struggles we face, we no longer hear the promises of God. We bring jaded cynicism with us to worship. We respond to Scripture with doubt and distrust. So how do we get from the place of discouragement to a place of peace and trust?

Remember that Pharaoh determined to set himself in opposition to God’s plan and the freedom of God’s people. We, too, have an enemy who constantly works to frustrate the revealed intentions of God, and who tirelessly works to keep us enslaved, at least emotionally and mentally through discouragement, frustration, and despair.

Remember that God was doing something much bigger than Israel understood. Yes, He was bringing them out of slavery, but He was demonstrating His power over Egypt and their false gods. He was acting out in type, breaking the power of sin over mankind and the finale deliverance Christ would bring. He was revealing to His people truth about His character and His ways. He was teaching them patience and dependence, which is far, far easier said than done. God works in our lives in ways we don’t understand, doing things we haven’t imagined, laying foundations for the future, revealing Himself, teaching us.

Yes, sometimes listening to God is hard, especially when our circumstances fly in the face of His promises. Waiting for Him to act is hard. Not knowing what He’s doing or when He intends to do it is hard. God never denied or minimized the suffering of His people as His plan moved forward. And the time DID come. When the waiting was over, Israel experienced the manifest presence of God and displays of His power in ways that defy description. His words to us are just as certain.

 

 

 

Not a Word Failed

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Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. Joshua 21:45

Not a word failed. All came to pass.

God had spoken three major promises to Israel:

  • He promised to give them an inheritance.
  • He promised to give them rest.
  • He promised to give them victory over their enemies.

They received all three. Joshua 21:43-45 summarizes this. Genesis through Joshua gives more details.

God has given us an inheritance that cannot be taken away.
God has given us rest body and soul.
God has given us victory over our enemies, chiefly sin and death and hell.

Not one word has failed of any good thing God has ever spoken.

Ask God to show you the evidence. Resolve to give Him due praise.

 

 

Given

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GivenJohn answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. John 3:27

My son is in the middle of geometry and you may recall working through proofs. At the beginning, before you begin to line out a strategy for attacking the problem, you have a set of pre-conditions, a set of givens. These are your starting points. The things you know for certain. Then you work step-by-step from those givens, incorporating other things you know for certain, the theorems and so forth, until you arrive at the solution, the proof. (Hopefully I didn’t stir up any bad memories.)

While I’m very thankful that life is NOT a geometry proof, it is essential to understand that we operate with a set of givens. Ours are so much better than a list of theorems and postulates, they are things God has given us. No matter what we come up against, these need to be our starting points, these are things we know for certain.

1. We have eternal life.
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 1 John 5:11

We have so much more than what we see around us.

2. We have the Holy Spirit.
And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. Acts 5:32

We are never alone. God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit lives not just with us, but in us. He sees and He knows exactly what we’re going through.

3. We have an understanding of Christ.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 1 John 5:20

Maybe not full understanding, but we know enough to grasp that Jesus loved us and wanted us with Him forever, and He was willing to go to the most extreme lengths for us.

4. We have everlasting consolation and good hope.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace. 2 Thessalonians 2:16

Consolation is comfort. And it’s everlasting. I like to think of it not just lasting forever with respect to time, but never running out. Not only that, but good hope, a confidence that there is more to come and it is better.

5. We have a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

We are not helpless, but we are able to accurately assess our situations in light of who we are in Christ and then respond, not out of fear but out of love for others, like the love Christ has shown us.

6. We have all things that pertain to life and godliness.
As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 2 Peter 1:3

We have all the resources we need to live the life God has called us to.

7. We have great and precious promises.
By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4

Not just the promise of eternal life, but promises that He’ll never leave us,  and that He hears us.

 
Whatever it is, wherever you are, start with these givens. They’ll lead you from your questions and doubts to what you know and finally to the One who knows all.

 

 

 

How Can I Be Sure?

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How Can I Be Sure-But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I be sure …?” Genesis 15:8 (NLT)

In Genesis chapter 15, God reiterates His covenant with Abram, and in this verse, Abram asks for some reassurance about his inheritance. In the context, he had just led an armed band on very successful mission to rescue Lot from a local warlord. Possessing the land seemed like a pipe dream when just keeping his family safe was such a task.

I love the tension in the question because it reflects where we spend most of our faith journey. Sovereign Lord shows Abram’s confidence that God was in control of all things. How can I be sure shows Abram’s reaction to the very real circumstances in which he lived. Isn’t that where we are? We know God is Lord and King but sometimes the evidence is obscured by the upheavals our daily lives.

God answers Abram’s question but not overtly. In the verses that follow, He instructs Abram to set up an ancient covenant-making ritual and through it, Abram gets his answer, and by extension, so do we. How can I be sure?

Because of the character of God – In the ritual, both parties to the covenant were supposed to walk between the animal part with the idea being that’s what should happen to them if they break the covenant. It was serious business. God alone passes through the pieces. Keeping the covenant rests solely on Him. He made the promise and He swears to keep it. No matter what Abram did, the covenant was unbreakable and would never be annulled. God’s promises to us are just as sure.

Because of the faithfulness of God – He spells out to Abram the coming events and assures him that no matter what happens, the covenant will stand. Like Abram, we get focused on our current situation and struggles. God has a long-range vision of our lives and events, and He will always accomplish His plan.

Because of the power of God – An inherent reassurance built into every promise God makes is the fact that He has the power to see His promises through. If I promise to pick up my kids at 5:00, it’s contingent on my car functioning, on traffic, on my health and a host of other things I don’t know about, much less have control over. God is not that way. Egyptian slavery will not stand in the way of His promise. Hostile tribes will not stand in the way. The disobedience of Israel will not. Not even my own wavering faith.

O Sovereign Lord, I can be sure.

 

 

 

Hope

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Hope“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,” Hebrews 6:19

Advent is a time of hope.
Not the schmaltzy kind we find in the succession of made for TV movies.

This is a confident hope.
A secure hope.
A hope that looks beyond the temporal and immediate to the unseen and the eternal.

It is a realization that the infinite God in His limitless love has reached out to us personally, individually and made a place for us in His unfolding plan.

Hope remembers the first “Let there be,” with the assurance it will all once again be “very good.”
Hope anticipates the time when His will is done on earth just as it is in heaven.

Hope is embodied in the coming of Jesus Christ.
It reminds us our hope is as sure and steadfast as the promises of God.

 

 

 

 

 

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