Do Not Forget the Lord Be Careful…

Do Not Forget the Lord

Be Careful…

“Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God”

Moses’ leadership over the past 40 years was

not the shortest distance between two points.

His leadership was more about equipping

the heart of the people to prosper in the

land than getting them to the land of promise.

Equipping the heart to trust in the Lord.

In Deuteronomy 8 Moses the great leader speaks

three times of forgetting the Lord your God.

Moses’ leadership is now in the last year of

his life and the last year of a 40 year journey.

The journey is just as important as the promise.

The promise of a rich land that will give them

everything they need not just to live in but thrive in.

Moses’ leadership over the past 40 years was

not the shortest distance between two points.

His leadership was more about equipping

the people to prosper in the land than

getting them to the land of promise.

So Moses spends considerable time going over the journey.

Moses says in verse 2…

  

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”

Remember the process of humbling

and testing a process of the “heart”.

Getting to the land is a short journey but a

prepared heart takes considerably longer.

40 years earlier the heart of

the people was a heart of a slave.

They did not need to make decisions

because their decisions were made for them.

They were not free and they did

not know how to handle freedom.

The promise land was always ready for the

people but the people were not ready for the land.

Moses reminds the people to remember the way God led them.

Each event revealed their heart and the readiness

to take on the responsibilities of God’s promise.

Moses says…

“Be careful to follow every command.”

The words of instruction, the way they

were to live, was not a suggestion.

The heart of the people needed to have strong resolute.

The commands needed to be a conviction of the heart.

We see it took 40 years for the

hearts to have this conviction.

In verse 11 Moses says…

 “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God,

failing to observe his commands,

his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.”

Moses realized that 40 years of equipping the heart

does not mean the heart would forever be changed.

Therefore it was important that he tell them…

 “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God”.

How careful are you?

Do you remind yourself of what the Lord

has done and what He has done for you?

How careful are you to keep His

commandments as convictions in your heart?

Remember it is not the distance you have

traveled it is the equipping of the heart.

Be careful to keep the remembrance

of the Lord in your heart.

Scripture Reading

Deuteronomy 8 NIV

8 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

6 Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and revering him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land — a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

19 If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.