The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!

Name: Scott
Scripture: Deuteronomy 7

Some snipits: 

"1 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites."

. . .

"7 The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! 8 Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand form your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 9 Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes h is unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. 10 But he does not hesitate to punish and destroy those who reject him."

OAP:

I really like the book of Deuteronomy so far. This whole chapter was great.

The first couple verses talk about GOd leading the Israelites into the promised land at last, and how they needed to destroy the people w ho occupied that land completely.  I kind of related this to how I am going away to college  next year. When I go off to college, God will clear the slate for me. Past years I have felt like there were "foreign nations" occupying the land I was in. There were people in higher grades than I, who were more popular and known and respected. I always felt like I couldn't live up to them and that in some way they were better than me, or something. But now God promises to clear these nations from the land he is giving me? How great! I must come into my own, not be afraid of other people, be the man God desires me to be.

The chapter goes on, in verses 7-10, to say why the Lord chose the Israelites as his people. I absolutely loved this cluster of verses. God DID choose us, and he DOES love us, even if he makes us walk in the desert for forty years.

It is also interesting to read verses 7-10 in the context of Jesus. It is pretty much what Jesus does for us. Replace "the Lord" with Jesus, and "from the oppressive hand of Pharoah, king of Egypt" with "from the bondage of sin and the grasp of Satan", and it totally fits! How crazy is that?

It was really encouraging to find this today. 

Jesus, thanks for these passages. Help me to continue to dive into your word regularly.