(Matthew 5:3) "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
"Poor in spirit" also means "meek" or "humble"... We know that to approach God for His forgiveness, we must be humble in spirit. In Deuteronomy, Moses is reviewing everything that has happened, and what God expects of the Israelites. In his message, he has also reminded the Israelites of a few facts...
(Deuteronomy 6:4) "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!"
Curious if the Israelites knew about the Trinity; but I do know that God revealed Himself to the Israelites by different names in order to inform them of His attributes, while frequently letting them know that there is only one God. Now, we reach this portion of Deuteronomy...
(Deuteronomy 7:7-12) "The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; 10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. 11 Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them. 12 “Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers..."
Here is another parallel of the relationship that we can have with Jesus. As the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt and slavery and should have desired to show their gratitude to the LORD...
(Romans 6:6,12-14) ...our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin...
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
We should be so grateful for what God has done for us! When we become Christians, we are then FREE... Even if we sin (and we will, God knew that), we will not lose our salvation. But while having this freedom for eternity (this get-of-of-jail-card), we should still desire to follow God's will. Why not? God blesses us in our obedience. Meanwhile, He is faithful and is with us always, and continues to work on us...(1 John 4:15-19) Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us.
Typically, I've been ending with versus out of the New Testament to tie in with the Old. But I'm going to leave off with this as a wake-up call toward humility... We do not deserve heaven. It is only because of what God has done for us! How much God loves us!
(Deuteronomy 9:6, 29) Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people... 29 Yet they are Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.’
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