A mountain and a valley and a battle.
Deuteronomy’s scriptures are very personal to me. Whenever I read them, I time travel to that place of clover and big sky. It was summer and my house was filled with boxes and disarray. We were packing to move, and at the time, I wasn’t even sure where we were going. An enemy’s taunting finger poke was soon like a battering ram knocking against the very foundation that held me up. It was oppressive (thick, smothering, suffocating, weighty).
6 “When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. 7 It is time to break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the neighboring regions—the Jordan Valley, the hill country, the western foothills, the Negev, and the coastal plain. Go to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, and all the way to the great Euphrates River. 8 Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it is the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants.’” Deuteronomy 1:6-8 NLT (emphasis mine).
They must have felt fear. Many times, the Lord had to tell them not to be afraid. It’s easy to read over Bible stories and fail to connect to the situation, but I know how fear feels, how it weakens and weights. I know what it’s like to move, and not know what home will look like.
30 The Lord your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt. 31 And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.’ Deuteronomy 1:30-31 NLT.
I know what it’s like to trust God, and then feel uncertain. Oh, there was a battle, and I found myself in the thick of it. Even years later and his faithfulness my home, I look back at that mountain and that journey. The Israelites needed reminding of God’s provision and faithfulness. I remind myself too.
Jesus would walk a road to a destination that his disciples didn’t imagine. He entered Jerusalem to the cries of an expectant crowd.
8 Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,
“Praise God!
Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David!
Praise God in highest heaven!”11 So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples. Mark 11:8-11 NLT.
He was also part of a battle. The Israelites fought forces in their midst–and the Lord delivered them. Jesus was the the target of both earthly and spiritual attacks–so that he could deliver us.
(Praise God in the highest heaven!)
Every battle looks different, but the enemy is the same.
Jesus came to give life (freedom, hope, salvation, comfort, forgiveness, healing, power, example, victory). God fights for us still.
Courtney (66books365)
Sixty-six books in a year 