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God already knew the Israelites would fall away when they entered the Promised Land. But He promised to be faithful to His covenant with them anyway. In doing so, He urged the Israelites through His servant Moses to choose His commandments and obey Him, that they might have life.
The world seeks to turn our hearts away from God. The Israelites would struggle with this in the Promised Land. The idols of foreign nations attracted their hearts.
Part of the problem is that they did not train themselves to walk with God. Instead of obeying His commandments and meditating on His precepts, their thought lives were sloppy and anemic. At the end of the day, they chose what was important to them, and it wasn’t God.
Our hearts will choose what we desire. Popularity, prestige, possessions, power—these often hold sway in our hearts, and we will seek the apparent security that comes from them. But we need to think about the consequences of choosing these over God.
God’s covenant with the Israelites demonstrates His mercy. He knew they would fail and turn away from Him. But He still promised to bring them out of exile.
More than that, God promised to create a new covenant with His rebellious, unfaithful people. They would no longer be under the Mosaic Law, but God would put His law in their hearts and again call them by His name (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Deuteronomy 30:6).
This internalizing of the law is fulfilled with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in each believer. This is not something we deserve—we have all fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). But God, in His great mercy, sent His Son to redeem us and gave us His Spirit to guide us.
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This teaching is based on Ken’s Handbook to Scripture.
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