Deuteronomy 1 is basically my life in a nutshell. I am officially an Israelite. Moses just does not know what to do with me. But first, a little verse by verse commentary by me of chapter 1. As I read it this morning, I couldn't believe how many verses jumped out at me. I have a new Bible as a gift with a journaling margin and so even though I've read this book before, I haven't underlined verses yet in this new Bible, so it's interesting to see which verses are jumping out at me this time reading it.
It starts out a little bit like a review by Moses of the Israelites history. Moses said in verse 6, "The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain...." Right away I underlined that phrase. I'm always looking for principles from Scripture, messages to me that are implied sometimes indirectly, and what I immediately loved from this verse was that there is a time line. God has us in places for a very specific amount of time and in this verse is was "long enough". This is such an encouragement to me. God will keep me in a place of discomfort sometimes until I've learned what I'm supposed to learn or our family has learned what we are supposed to learn and then, as the next verse continues, it says, "Turn and take your journey...." So, that's it. We wait in the place He has us and then when it is time to move on, we go. He wants to give us the the land, but we often have lessons to learn before we take possession of it. There are always so many action words in Scripture - Turn, take, go.....or, like yesterday, drive out, destroy, demolish.....if you are a Christian, you are not passive.
Then, Moses recalls how he was starting to get overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Israelites, "I am not able to bear you by myself". This is another great math verse, "The Lord your God has multiplied you...May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as He has promised you." A lot of people think large families are crazy. To some extent this is true! However, when I read Scripture and I see how God sees large families, like the Israelites, I feel blessed! I have literally been multiplied from one person to 10! That is cool! But, many Christians do not agree with me, let alone the world. We were sat down for one interview by church leadership as we sought membership a few years ago. They wanted to know why we had so many children. Do they ask everyone that? Why do you only have 2? or 3? or 1? It wasn't asked with a heart of kindness, is all I can say. Another pastor's wife told me not to have more children when were expecting our 5th. She felt sorry for our oldest as she assumed she would be "stuck" raising her younger siblings. One relative said to me, "Better you than me, " when I mentioned I was pregnant with my 7th. Did I mention the dread I had when I told her? I knew that was going to be the response. So, that's only a couple comments from many inside the church who do not agree with large families. All that to say, Scripture encourages me and tells me that multiplication is a sign of blessing and I do feel blessed! One time, back in the city, when I only had 4 kids, we were all out on the driveway playing. Out of nowhere, some older African woman (I swear she had bare feet and a tribal type of dress on) walked by, as if she was on her way to get water from a well. She looked at me and my kids and in her thick African accent she said, "You are blessed." I remember saying, "Yes! Thank you!" or something like that. Did God send me an angel right at that time? I'm pretty sure she was an angel. Never saw her before or after that time.
So, being overwhelmed, Moses gets the Israelites to appoint leaders, "wise, understanding, experienced men". This jumped out at me, too, as they were appointed as "heads of your tribes". Just as the New Testament describes men as the head of their homes and of their wives, these men have that same title. This made me think of how we can pray specifically for our girls and for the type of husband we must be praying for. In Titus and Timothy, there is a very specific list of things that an elder must have in order to be qualified as an elder. It is really a list of what all husbands must have as elders of their homes. Similarly, this verse gives another phrase to ask God for, "wise, understanding and experienced men". It also implies those men are out there! I don't have to be afraid that they aren't there, we just have to pray that we'll find the few that are there! It also helps me to keep praying for the parents of those future men, and even for myself, that all of us will raise "wise, understanding and experienced men". May this be the kind of man each one of my daughters will marry one day.
The reason the Israelites, in particular, needed this type of man was in order to hear all the cases brought before them all the time. Yesterday we had one of those "cases between a man and his brother". Whoa, one boy jumped on another boy in fury when he simply didn't want to hear his voice anymore. It was quite the commotion. I literally felt like a judge listening to the witnesses, the defendant, the plaintiff. Oh, for the wisdom of Solomon. I often want to cut everything in half just to have it over with. So, I pray, that I, too, will have wisdom, understanding, and experience, just to be fair and pass good judgement in each case. I still wish I had a dungeon sometimes. "You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it." That verse says it all. I have small and great cases on a daily basis - spilled milk in one moment or a vicious couch attack like yesterday. Sometimes that is exactly it, "the case is too hard" for me. I don't have Moses in my house to take it to, but I do have my husband and I do have God, so that's what I do. I take it to God and to RM. We have trials going on all the time. It's a regular courthouse around here.
This is getting long, but I'm writing because I can't stop. But I will stop for now. I have much more to write on the next half of the chapter. But I have a cat party to plan....I can't believe I just wrote that.
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