The Lord is God
January 29, 2021
Commentary
It is so easy for us to look everywhere else but to God for our guidance and leadership. We trust financial advisors, news commentators and medical doctors, but do we really trust God? It seems that Moses is trying to get the Israelites to see that their trust needs to be in God and not in man (v. 32). Moses reminds the people that no other nation could claim the unique experiences they have had in seeing the hand of God (v. 33). He explains how God has revealed himself in three distinct ways from Egypt to Sinai (v. 34):
1. First, by signs and wonders (Ex. 7:3).
2. Second, by conflict (Ex. 14:14).
3. Third, by great terror (Ex. 12:30-36).
Each of these things lead Israel to magnify the Lord. No other nation but Israel could ever claim to have heard the voice of God speaking out of fire (vv. 35-36). No other nation could point to a god who brought them into existence by redeeming them from a stronger and more powerful nation (vv. 37-38). Remember, the awesome miracles such as the plagues, the pillar of fire, the parting of the Red Sea, manna and other miraculous things made it clear that it was God who redeemed the Israelites (v. 39). Obey God’s teaching and your decedents will live long and be successful (v. 40).
Application
How do you and I know the power and strength of God? Probably I will never have a burning bush experience or see the waters of the Red Sea part like the Israelites did. However, I have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit which they did not have. I just need to trust Him!
Deuteronomy 4:32– 40 (NET)
32 Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it. 33 Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it? 34 Or has God ever before tried to deliver a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, signs, wonders, war, strength, power, and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 35 You have been taught that the Lord alone is God—there is no other besides him. 36 From heaven he spoke to you in order to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire from which you also heard his words. 37 Moreover, because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants who followed them and personally brought you out of Egypt with his great power 38 to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property. 39 Today realize and carefully consider that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below—there is no other! 40 Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you as a permanent possession.”
Illustration: Boy Will go Over The Cliff if Dad Holds The Rope
A group of botanists noticed through binoculars a flower of rarity and beauty laying deep in a ravine. A curious young boy was watching nearby, and the scientists told him they would pay him well if he would agree to be lowered over the cliff to retrieve the flower below. The boy took one long look down and said, “I’ll be back in a minute.” A short time later he returned, followed by a gray-haired man. Approaching the botanist, the boy said, “I’ll go over that cliff and get that flower for you if this man holds the rope. He’s my dad.” (Our Daily Bread, April 8, 1996).