“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them.” (Deuteronomy 33:27)
In this chapter Moses blesses the tribes of Israel individually. God has told him, he’s going to die and so he leaves the tribes with his last words. In our verse of study, he reassures Israel God’s love for them, God’s help and God’s leading.
Like a parent who holds out his arms to keep a child from falling, God is their protection, eternally. His arms will always be there to protect them. In like manner God will keep Israel from falling. The people of God went through terrible times, but God was always there to keep them from being completely destroyed and He will always be there to keep them from being completely destroy. Just like He holds out His arms underneath Israel to keep them from falling, as grafted in adopted children, the church also is reassured of the Lord’s everlasting arms underneath us. Jude writes about how the Lord is able to keep us from falling in a similar fashion as Moses. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25)
Moses makes another declaration, “...He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee...” Notice that Moses doesn’t use the plural enemies. There is in reality only one enemy of Israel and the church. And that is satan (Capitalization purposely omitted as he is unworthy of any recognition of any kind.) From the beginning his objective has been to destroy man, God’s crowning creation, from the Garden of Eden until he is finally placed in the fiery fire. Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) The enemy has tried many times to exterminate Israel completely but has been unable to do so. Each time, the Lord has gathered them and has destroyed the efforts of the enemy. And a time is coming when the enemy will attempt to destroy the church. It has been happening and is even now happening in many countries throughout the world. But the Lord has warned us ahead of time. And just as our persecuted brethren have had to stand for Jesus in the face of losing their families, losing their homes, fleeing their countries and in the threat of death, there will come a time when our love and faith in the Lord will have to be proved.
Jesus spoke these words to Israel because those who believed on Him were to be persecuted for His name’s sake. But it also speaks to the present church, some who are today persecuted. “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets." (Luke 6:22-23) John saw these persecuted saints in his vision and wrote about them. “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” (Revelation 6:9-11) Even if we are killed on earth, we live forever with the Lord.
This is not the news we want to hear if you love the world. But the world is nothing for us. What the world has is sin and death. It’s ruled by the enemy. It’s not our home. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” (1John. 2:15-17)
And lastly, God commands Israel to destroy those who the enemy uses to come against them saying, “...Destroy them.” They have a command from God to destroy those who come against them. Realize that nations tell Israel to make peace with their enemies. They can obey man or obey God. To disobey God would be sinning like King Saul who didn’t obey the Lord completely and spared their animals and their king. And God gave the kingdom to David instead. (1Samuel 15) Israel has a mandate from the Lord. And we have a mandate from the Lord. The enemy uses the flesh and the world to destroy the church. These work in the church to divide the church and to destroy it and destroy the saints.
In review, God’s promise of love, protection and guidance is not only for Israel, but for the church also. He has promised to thrust the enemy from us. And although the enemy’s attempts to destroy Israel and the church have been persistent, Israel has survived and will survive. And the church has survived and will survive. God has told us what to do. We must be obedient and destroy the enemy. For Israel, the enemy is external, coming from other nations stirred up against them. For the church, it’s internal and has to do with the flesh and the pull of the world. Both have the same objective. Both originate with the enemy. We have a command from the Lord, “...Destroy them.” For Israel, it’s war. For the church, it’s death, daily dying to self and surrender to the Lord. “Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24) And because we do live in this flesh and in this world, we must do it daily. Matthew omitted that it must be a daily dying, but Luke writes, “And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) The old sinful man has died with the death of Jesus. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Romans 6:6) We have been born again of God with God’s pure and holy nature.
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