God allows us to make our own choices, but we should not think we can disobey Him and somehow be in control of where it ends. Today’s reading in Deuteronomy gives us a stark picture of total depravity and where the downward spiral of sin can lead, including things that could be taken right out of today’s headlines.
As someone said and has been quoted many times:
“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay!”
Could you be on a path that could start the slide into that downward spiral?
Today’s Readings:
Deuteronomy 27 & 28
Psalm 39.12-13
Proverbs 13.7-8
Luke 6.27-49
The Downward Spiral of Sin
Deuteronomy 27 & 28:
Memorials and the Ten Commandments
… you shall set up for yourselves large stones, and whitewash them with lime. You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the LORD your God is giving you, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ just as the LORD God of your fathers promised you (27.2-3).
Some people think it was foolish to make a big deal about things like having the “Ten Commandments” posted in schools and other public places. And, sadly, that battle has already been lost. But, apparently, God thinks it’s a pretty good idea to have reminders of the truth! God told His people to set up memorials and reminders over and over in the Scriptures.
Even the Scriptures themselves are reminders and we should be faithful to read and meditate on them so we can remember His love, remember His promises, remember His faithfulness, and … remember His warnings.
The Downward Spiral of Sin
Now to chapter 28. I know it can be hard to read some of this:
45 “So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever.
49 “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.
“…your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you … You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters … he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat …The tender and delicate woman … will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, her placenta … she will eat them secretly …” (Deut. 28.51-57).
This talks about the utter depravity of man when given over to his own devices. Just as light does not cause darkness, God does not cause depravity. Darkness is the absence of light and depravity is the absence of God’s restraining grace.
The New Testament gives a similar warning about the danger of rejecting God and its resultant downward spiral.
Our Own Sinful Desires
When people, whether nations or individuals, repeatedly reject God and His rule in their lives, God steps back and gives them over to do whatever seems right to them. When they harden their hearts and lose all fear of God, it leads to a downward spiral of sin (Romans 1.18-2.3). Continued rejection of God leads to a continued removal of grace and a further slide into more and worse sin.
24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due (Rom. 1).
But sexual immorality and idolatry are not the end.
The Bottom of the Downward Spiral
Sin can’t be managed. It always leads to more sin (Rom. 6.19). Notice the list of things at the bottom of this spiral:
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them (Rom. 1).
Passages like this should scare the daylights out of those who have not surrendered their lives to God! We shouldn’t think we can reject Him and be in control of the results or turn to Him when we are good and ready. As the book of Hebrews says repeatedly:
Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion (vv. 3.7, 15, 4.7).
Even as believers, we’re deceived if we think we can disobey God and somehow be in control of where it ends. I’ve seen this quote attributed to various people but no matter who said it first, there’s a lot of truth in it. It says, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay!”
Today’s Other Readings:
Psalm 39.12-13:
Calling on God’s Mercy
The psalmist understood that He had no right to be in the presence of God on his own merit, but he cried out for the mercy of God. He was much like the tax collector in Luke 18.9-14:
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
We are all legalists at heart and when we believe we are somehow “keeping the law,” at least better than others, that kind of religious legalism allows us to trust in our own self-righteousness. Unfortunately, self-righteousness doesn’t exist anywhere but in our own deceived hearts.
Proverbs 13.7-8:
Our Giving and God’s Return
There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; and one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches (v. 7).
This brings to mind a verse in our New Testament reading:
Luke 6.38 says:
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
When we are generous with our time and our resources, God gives back in abundance and in blessings that cannot be measured or even totally understood in this life.
Luke 6.27-49:
The “Golden Rule”
And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise (v. 31).
Growing up, most of us heard this taught as the “golden rule.” But we need to remember that the “golden rule,” generally, gets the “golden result” (Matt. 7.2). That means we will get back what we give, not necessarily from the same person or in the same situation, but God will see to it that we are blessed when we do what is right from a pure heart.
Coming Up:
In the coming days, we’ll talk about becoming bored with God, facing storms, fear, and when friends betray us.
I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss any of them.
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Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥
Note about this post:
I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer.
A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”
I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.
Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)
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