Moses is giving his farewell address to the people of Israel. He knows he will soon die and the people will cross the Jordan River and enter their land. He addresses the older generation of Israel in particular because they have all experienced God’s mighty deliverance from slaveship in Egypt. These people are over forty years old. They were children or young adults below twenty when the LORD delivered them. None of them are over sixty because the LORD caused everyone who was twenty and older to die in the wilderness.
He reminds them of how the mighty hand of the LORD delivered them from Egypt and brought them out and set them free. He reminds them of how the LORD was always with them and delivered them from enemies along the way and how he provided for their every need while traveling through the wilderness.
He also tells them that the LORD will go ahead of them into the land and bring a fear into the hearts of the current occupants and the LORD will fight for them and they will win easily and possess the land.
But Moses gives them a warning, if they faithfully obey the LORD and serve and worship him with all their heart and soul he will protect them and prosper them in every way. But if they forget the LORD then he will withhold his blessing in every way and they will dry up and die in the good land the LORD has given them.
He goes on to charge them to pass their faith in the LORD on to their children and grandchildren telling them over and over again how the LORD delivered them and teaching them the LORD’s commands.
Moses told them they had a choice. They declared their loyalty to the LORD. But when they were safely and comfortably settled into their new homeland they soon forgot the LORD and began to worship other gods.
What they needed was not a onetime commitment but to continually make the decision to follow, love and worship the LORD.
The LORD gave them their promise land. He delivered on his promise but the people failed on two fronts.
First, they became complacent when they became comfortable in their new homes and homeland. They forgot the LORD and began worshiping other gods and soon became as pagan as the nations around them.
Secondly, when they no longer worshiped the LORD they passed on their new worship of other gods to their children and grandchildren. Thus they failed in God’s command to pass their faith in him on.
When we fail to live out a life of true worship to the LORD in front of our kids we fail them because they begin to conform to our wrong patterns of worship and develop them as their lifestyle.
We older generation of Americans have failed our children and grandchildren. We have adopted lifestyles of individualism, selfishness and materialism. Then we wonder why our descendants are not following God. We have done the same thing the Israelites did. We verbally declared our allegiance to God but in reality continued to live like everyone else and our children are paying the price.
We have worked ourselves to the bone for material things. We have voted for the things and people who promised prosperity. We have sold our souls for materialism and now our whole nation is paying the price. We’ve failed to have such strong convictions about anything thus failing to pass on a Godly heritage to our offspring. What happened to being a nation that “Trusted in God” or “One Nation Under God” or “A Christian Nation”? It slipped away a little bit through each generation until it is no more.
These values upon which our nation was founded have gone down the tubes. They have drifted away gradually and we haven’t even noticed. Now as we look around they are not even there. Our president tells Muslim leaders that we are not a Christian nation and there is no outcry from the populace. Maybe, in reality we are not; at least it doesn’t seem to bother us.
It is time for America to make a choice. If we are going to be a Christian nation then we need to get on our knees and repent for our complacency. We need to repent to our children and grandchildren and set an example of humility and repentance for them as well.
It’s time for America to make a choice. The choices are the same as they were for Israel in Moses time. If we choose to worship and obey the LORD we will again experience his blessing as in the past. If we choose to continue on as we are now going the LORD will withhold his blessings and we will continue to be on our own.
It’s your choice America.
Leave a comment