January 17, 2025
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 32 - Joshua 1
Meditation Verses: Deuteronomy 32:5-6
Thought
In the song of Moses, which God gave to warn the people of their future, in hopes that they might repent and stay humble, teachable and obedient, in this song, God reveals Israel's rebellion against Him. They disobey and disregard His Word and worship other gods. They become a warped and corrupt generation. They are no longer counted as His children. They repay Him evil for all the good He has done for them. They are ungrateful and don't recognize that He created them, just like a father. He provided for them and protected them and trained them and taught them, but they have turned away from Him and rejected His ways. Everything they are, everything they enjoy, it's all from Him, but they credit Him with nothing and cast Him behind their backs.
Application
This is far too common a story, played out again and again, across homes and across ages. It is true of household after household, and even God is treated the same. Children reject their fathers who lived to provide for and train them, and we think that normal, even right. We always see it from the perspective of the child, breaking free to spread their wings--so glorious and good! We don't consider the perspective of the father, who is all but cast aside. So we can't understand the grief and fury of God, who is absolutely right and good and deserving of all glory and honor and thanks and obedience and respect. We treat God as we treat our fathers, as if they are powerless and insignificant. But God stands with the fathers, and stands in the place of a father. He watches the children corrupt themselves, walking in their own foolish "wisdom," destroying themselves and their own children. He no longer counts them His children: He withdraws His blessing and protection and provision, until and unless they repent. What a foolish thing to reject a father, especially God. It is the height of arrogance, as if we made ourselves and owe no one anything. If we owe our earthly fathers a debt we cannot repay, how much more do we owe God? That is the basis for all submission and obedience. Anything less is no honor at all, but rebellion and corruption and rejection, and the cause to be rejected.