Sunday 07/02/23
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Thinking on God
Today I really feel like we would benefit from taking another look at a passage we covered last week.
Last week we were talking about the command of God to Remember and it was connected with our beginning passage of the year in Peter where we are told that it is because of forgetting that some people begin to fail in bearing fruit unto Christ’s image and become ineffective in their pursuit of knowing Him more intimately.
This passage I’m talking about has kind of haunted me on and off for a week. Not in a bad way but in a way that enticed me to consider what life should be like.
It’s found in Deuteronomy 6:6-12,
“(6) These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, (7) and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up. (8) You should tie them as a reminder on your forearm and fasten them as symbols on your forehead. (9) Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and gates. (10) Then when the LORD your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you – a land with large, fine cities you did not build, (11) houses filled with choice things you did not accumulate, hewn out cisterns you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant – and you eat your fill, (12) be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, that place of slavery.”
You know what is presented here is an encouragement towards a lifestyle of thinking of God. To think of His words, His ways, His character. To talk about those things as a normal course of conversation in your home, as you work, as you’re traveling and among friends. Such an encouragement would not have been necessary if mankind had not fallen. It would have represented their normal way of life.
Imagine with me, if you will, a world where Adam and Eve rejected the temptation of the enemy. Where they waited until the cool of the day and brought their concerns to God – allowing Him to answer for Himself.
And what might His reply have been like?
Knowing Him as we have come to… as we have gone through His word together, I believe He would have presented thoughts for them to contemplate on their own and amongst themselves.
Considerations for them to ponder and meditate on and talk about that they might come to a conclusion through all they already knew of Him.
That seems to be God’s way.
If God had wanted mankind to trust Him just purely because He IS trustworthy, He could have proven that to them in irrepressible ways… in and with empirical evidence that would forever settle the issue in the heart and mind of mankind.
That however, would simply be factual knowledge, scientific knowledge, academic knowledge.
What it would utterly fail to be, is relational knowledge!
Now imagine three, four, five or six generations in from Adam and Eve.
- There’s still no death.
- There’s still no sin;
- No thought or even a hint of rebellion.
Only the bliss of daily communion with God indirectly through all He has made. Then, each and every day would close in walks through the ever developing garden in the cool of the day together with Him.
Imagine if you will, what kind of conversations and thoughts would flood through your mind and your interactions with others during those times of the day when you were not directly talking with God.
To me, it isn’t even a minor stretch to think that our conversations and our thoughts would have been LED to the kind of things God instructs here in Deuteronomy chapter 6.
That there would be no place in our life or thoughts which where such thinking would not only welcome but which would, quite honestly, represent the norm.
God tells fallen man in Deuteronomy 6:6-12,
“(6) These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind”
What words?
Deut. 6:1-5,
“(1) Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, (2) that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. (3) Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you- ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ (4) “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Imagine how differently these words might have hit pre-fallen mankind.
How differently they would have been worded.
Words like command, judgments, statutes would be FOREIGN to them.
These are legal and political terms NOT relational words of intimacy.
Fearing God would simply be honoring Him and holding Him in esteemed renown.
Possessing land would make absolutely no sense to them.
The whole Earth was commonly known to belong to God and He had given them all, as humans in the collective image of the Godhead, ruling authority over all of it.
No person would feel the need to claim a certain section of land for themselves alone nor to safeguard it against the inroads of his neighbor for they all lived and functioned as one.
The words “all the days of your life“ too would have struck them as odd.
When you yourself are eternal, time only has meaning for marking events not the duration of your physical existence.
Being called “Israel” those who wrestle with God would have been unthinkable to them.
Who would wrestle with Him or resist Him?
Being told to carefully observe what God said so as to honor His words with obedience would have been 1st nature.
There would be no need to encourage someone to pay attention to God and obey Him any more than they would need to encourage them to breathe.
The promise that they would multiply was no more than a known and experienced reality.
Of course they would multiply!
That was God’s command the day they were made.
They literally would have no notion of lack, infertility, the need to prepare and store up enough in order to be able to afford children, no thought of being too old to have children.
The promise would have seemed so unnecessary to state – out loud – verbally and as a command, that it would have evoked questions rather than settle concerns.
A land “flowing with milk and honey” – meaning a land of abundances and richness. Was there any other kind?
No, all of those words would have been reduced down to two truths which every human being knew instinctively and did as the joyful response of their hearts to their environment, their mutual relationships amongst each other and to the God they loved!
- The Lord our God is unified, is in Himself ONE. They Dwell in the unity of perfect agreement and deferment amongst Themselves.
- “We are to live for and with Them – as Their continual delight with everything we are… with all the power we’ve been given to exist as human beings in Their image.”
These truths would have occupied many happy and joyful thoughts.
Those who have been release from the bondage of “self” find great joy and satisfaction in the delight of those they love and NO WHERE would this be MORE true than mankind’s delight in what delights God!
Rather than talking about these surface and obvious truths, these humans would be diving into their depths. Sounding more like poets and philosophers than acolytes.
Loving and being in Love with their Creator, God and most treasured Friend.
Question – what hinders us from living like this now? The flesh!
I am not insinuating in any way that pre-fall conditions can be realized anywhere near to what they would have had in our current state.
There is simply too much self in the way and we are not free to think and contemplate as we work and live.
The garden was perfectly suited to this – a fallen world is NOT.
We CAN however, experience this to a limited degree.
They had no veil obscuring His face as we have, but that does not hinder us from progressively becoming more and more this way as we are daily transformed into His image.
Mostly today, if attempted at all – such communication is lofty, cerebral and interesting. These are Not bad qualities for they existed then as well, but they were not ends in themselves as they now are.
People enjoy thinking on things which are pleasant and pleasing.
Things which are intellectually stimulating and enjoyable and those thoughts are themselves the reward.
Here in Deuteronomy however, God is suggesting something greater to the second generation of Israelites than their parents ever realized. Something which begins in honor of God and ends in knowing and enjoying Him.
Deuteronomy 6:6-12,
“(6) These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, (7) and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up. (8) You should tie them as a reminder on your forearm and fasten them as symbols on your forehead. (9) Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and gates. (10) Then when the LORD your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you – a land with large, fine cities you did not build, (11) houses filled with choice things you did not accumulate, hewn out cisterns you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant – and you eat your fill, (12) be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, that place of slavery.”
Deut. 6:1-5,
“(1) Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, (2) that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. (3) Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you- ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ (4) “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Psalms of thinking on God.
Psalm 119:97, “Oh, how I love Your law! It ismymeditationalltheday.”
Psalm 63:6, “When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the nightwatches.”
Psalm 119:24-41,
“(24)Yes, I find delight in your rules; they give me guidance. (25) ? (Dalet) I collapse in the dirt. Revive me with your word! (26) I told you about my ways and you answered me. Teach me your statutes! (27) Help me to understand what your precepts mean! Then I can meditate on your marvelous teachings. (28) I collapse from grief. Sustain me by your word! (29) Remove me from the path of deceit! Graciously give me your law! (30) I choose the path of faithfulness; I am committed to your regulations. (31) I hold fast to your rules. O LORD, do not let me be ashamed! (32) I run along the path of your commands, for you enable me to do so. (33) ? (He) Teach me, O LORD, the lifestyle prescribed by your statutes, so that I might observe it continually. (34) Give me understanding so that I might observe your law, and keep it with all my heart. (35) Guide me in the path of your commands, for I delight to walk in it. (36) Give me a desire for your rules, rather than for wealth gained unjustly. (37) Turn my eyes away from what is worthless! Revive me with your word! (38) Confirm to your servant your promise, which you made to the one who honors you. (39) Take away the insults that I dread! Indeed, your regulations are good. (40) Look, I long for your precepts. Revive me with your deliverance! (41) ? (Vav) May I experience your loyal love, O LORD, and your deliverance, as you promised.”
This should be the way we think. Delighting in God and causing him pleasure in the very thoughts of our minds should be our driving passion and a primary place where we find joy.
Like I’ve said before we look at the Patriarchs, the faith they had, the devotion they lived and the love and relationship with God they enjoyed and we want what they had but then we are unwilling to do what they did.
However I believe that all of you have come to the place in your life where it could be said about you what Paul said to the Corinthians in 1st Corinthians 10:15…
“(15) I am talking to sensible people. Apply what I am saying to yourselves.”
We read the words of David and think if only my heart would long for God like that. If I could honestly say every morning that my soul literally pants after God like a deer after the water broke. But as we read the words of David we see the things he did and I actually believe that sometimes it never even occurs to us that perhaps the reason he felt as he did is because he did what he did.
We have no room to complain if the intimacy that we claim we want stands elusive to us since in all reality we only want it if it’s easy and it’s handed to us for nothing.
The fact that Paul prayed for believers to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will implies that he knew that that knowledge was being sought by them and was valuable to them.
“(3) We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, (4) since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; (5) because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, (6) which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; (7) as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
(9) For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; (10) that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; (11) strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; (12) giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
(13) He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, (14) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (15) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”
We must be people like God commanded here in Deuteronomy 5 and 6. People who love Him and long for Him with all of our hearts where nothing else will do and nothing else could ever satisfy.
Isa 26:3, “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.”
Blessings!
