Steve Webb 0:00 Love is a decision. Coming to you almost live again from Riverside, California. This is the Lifespring! One Year Bible, and podcasting since 2004, I'm Steve Webb, your OG Godcaster. I'm still on vacation, so this episode is pre-recorded. And according to our travel itinerary, the Lovely Lady LeeAnn and I should be taking a riverboat ride today in Fairbanks, Alaska. That should be fun. I'll tell you about it when I get back to the studio. It's The Law Monday and we'll read Deuteronomy 10 through 12. The website is lifespringmedia.com, and I'll have contact information at the end of the show. Before we read, let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank you for our time together, I pray God that you would bless us as we read and that you would teach us. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, let's begin. Steve Webb 0:53 Deuteronomy, chapter 10. “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.” (The people of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place. From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water. At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord to stand before the Lord to minister to him and to bless his name, to this day. Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him.) “I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’ “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and for the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. Steve Webb 3:59 Deuteronomy, chapter 11. “Therefore, love the Lord your God and always keep His mandate and His statutes, ordinances, and commands. You must understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God: His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm; His signs and the works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land; what He did to Egypt’s army, its horses and chariots, when He made the waters of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and He destroyed them completely; what He did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place; and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when in the middle of the whole Israelite camp the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them. Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done. “Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit, and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky. It is a land the Lord your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year. “If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and worship him with all your heart and all your soul, I will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and oil. I will provide grass in your fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied. Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, worship, and bow down to other gods. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will close the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land the Lord is giving you. “Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your fathers. For if you carefully observe every one of these commands I am giving you to follow — to love the Lord your God, walk in all His ways, and remain faithful to him — the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will drive out nations greater and stronger than you are. Every place the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put fear and dread of you in all the land where you set foot, as He has promised you. “Look, today I set before you a blessing and a curse: there will be a blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you today, and a curse, if you do not obey the commands of the Lord your God and you turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods you have not known. When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal. Aren’t these mountains across the Jordan, beyond the western road in the land of the Canaanites, who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh? For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you possess it and settle in it, be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances I set before you today. Steve Webb 8:08 Deuteronomy, chapter 12. These are the commands and laws you must carefully obey in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Obey them as long as you live in the land. When you inherit the lands of these nations, you must completely destroy all the places where they serve their gods, on high mountains and hills and under every green tree. Tear down their altars, smash their holy stone pillars, and burn their Asherah idols in the fire. Cut down their idols and destroy their names from those places. Don’t worship the Lord your God that way, but look for the place the Lord your God will choose—a place among your tribes where he is to be worshiped. Go there, and bring to that place your burnt offerings and sacrifices; bring a tenth of what you gain and your special gifts; bring what you have promised and the special gifts you want to give the Lord, and bring the first animals born to your herds and flocks. There you will be together with the Lord your God. There you and your families will eat, and you will enjoy all the good things for which you have worked, because the Lord your God has blessed you. Do not worship the way we have been doing today, each person doing what he thinks is right. You have not yet come to a resting place, to the land the Lord your God will give you as your own. But soon you will cross the Jordan River to live in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, where he will give you rest from all your enemies and you will live in safety. Then the Lord your God will choose a place where he is to be worshiped. To that place you must bring everything I tell you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your offerings of a tenth of what you gain, your special gifts, and all your best things you promised to the Lord. There rejoice before the Lord your God. Everyone should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no land of their own. Be careful that you don’t sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere you please. Offer them only in the place the Lord will choose. He will choose a place in one of your tribes, and there you must do everything I am commanding you. But you may kill your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were a deer or a gazelle; this is the blessing the Lord your God is giving you. Anyone, clean or unclean, may eat this meat, but do not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water. Do not eat in your own towns what belongs to the Lord: one-tenth of your grain, new wine, or oil; the first animals born to your herds or flocks; whatever you have promised to give; the special gifts you want to give to the Lord, or any other gifts. Eat these things when you are together with the Lord your God, in the place the Lord your God chooses to be worshiped. Everyone must do this: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns. Rejoice in the Lord your God’s presence about the things you have worked for. Be careful not to forget the Levites as long as you live in the land. When the Lord your God enlarges your country as he has promised, and you want some meat so you say, “I want some meat,” you may eat as much meat as you want. If the Lord your God chooses a place where he is to be worshiped that is too far away from you, you may kill animals from your herds and flocks, which the Lord has given to you. I have commanded that you may do this. You may eat as much of them as you want in your own towns, as you would eat gazelle or deer meat. Both clean and unclean people may eat this meat, but be sure you don’t eat the blood, because the life is in the blood. Don’t eat the life with the meat. Don’t eat the blood, but pour it out on the ground like water. If you don’t eat it, things will go well for you and your children, because you will be doing what the Lord says is right. Take your holy things and the things you have promised to give, and go to the place the Lord will choose. Present your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices should be poured beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat. Be careful to obey all the rules I am giving you so that things will always go well for you and your children, and you will be doing what the Lord your God says is good and right. You will enter the land and take it away from the nations that the Lord your God will destroy ahead of you. When you force them out and live in their land, they will be destroyed for you, but be careful not to be trapped by asking about their gods. Don’t say, “How do these nations worship? I will do the same.” Don’t worship the Lord your God that way, because the Lord hates the evil ways they worship their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods! Be sure to do everything I have commanded you. Do not add anything to it, and do not take anything away from it. Steve Webb 13:15 Well, Beloved, let's talk about Deuteronomy 10. For just a little bit, actually just two verses from Deuteronomy 10, verses 12 and 13 which said, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” So these are the actions that God requires of his people. So let's go through them one at a time. Number one, to fear the Lord your God. Now, this isn't the kind of fear that makes us tremble with fright. This is an awe-inspired respect that causes us to want to please him. And as he invites us into his presence, we're aware of his infinite power. How could we not be? We're aware of his holiness and his righteousness. But the fact remains - how cool is this - that he has indeed invited us. So we realize that he wants us to be with him. And then we realize the price he paid so that we could be in his presence. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, died for our sins and was resurrected, defeating death. And then the third person of the Trinity the Holy Spirit came to live inside of us when we accepted Jesus, which is an unimaginable privilege. And all of this helps us to realize how very much God loves us. 1 John 4:18 tells us that “there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.” Beloved, we need not fear God if we have placed our faith in Jesus, not the type of fear that means “afraid”. And then the second thing he requires of his people is to walk in all his ways. In his Word, God has given us instructions for how we should live. He expects and requires us to follow these instructions. And much of the time our inclination is to follow our own desires which are diametrically opposed to God's ways. But in spite of our desires, he requires that we choose his way. I mean, think about it. If we insist on walking in our own ways, how can we say that we are his? Listen, when I married the Lovely Lady LeeAnn, I made a vow to be faithful to her and to walk in the ways of matrimony. If I insist on continuing to live as if I were a single man, how could I say that I was truly her husband? I may have said the words but my heart and my mind was not changed. Well, in a similar way, when I accepted Christ, I began a new relationship with him, and I asked him to be the Lord of my life. My life must reflect *that* relationship, just as much as my life must reflect *the marriage relationship* I have with LeeAnn. The third thing that he requires is to love him. God requires that we make a conscious decision to love him. This kind of love is not based on an emotional or romantic whim, but a reasoned response to the love and mercy he’s shown toward us. Love is more than a feeling. Love is a decision. I decided to love the Lovely Lady LeeAnn, forsaking all others. Through good times and hard times, in sickness and in health, I promised to love her. That's a picture of how we are to love God. Sometimes life is sweet, and sometimes it's hard. But I choose to love God in all circumstances. And then number four, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. Now, because we love him, because of the fact that all that we are, and all that we have is because of God's goodness and love. He requires us to serve him with our whole being. All that we do should be done as if it were a service to him. Without him, I'm nothing. My very breath is a gift from God, I owe literally everything to him. It is my honor to serve him. It is an obligation, but one that I take on willingly and without reservation, how could I not? And then number five, to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord. You see, we cannot keep his commandments and statutes unless we know them. Therefore, he requires that we truly study his Word. We must become students of the word. We must keep it in our hearts and our minds. His word is really a love letter to us. And in it, he reveals his heart to us. He shows us what his initial plan for mankind was before the fall, and then how he set about redeeming us so that all could be set right. And the more I study and read, the more I want to know him and to do what he wants. And then the bonus, all of this is given to us for our good. The Lord our God is not a cosmic killjoy. He's not a sovereign stick-in-the-mud or the Big Buzzkill. His commandments and statutes are given so that we can live the very best life possible, the life that he knows is best for us, even if we can't understand it. God knew from the foundation of the world that we would fail miserably in keeping his commandments. It didn't surprise him when Adam and Eve sinned, and God already had a plan of salvation in mind. He gave us free will knowing that we would make the wrong choices. But the alternative, that of having no free will would mean that we would not love him out of choice, but out of programming. But then it wouldn't be love. Remember, love is a decision. Forced love is not love. It's something else entirely, right? So in his perfect love, righteousness, and holiness from the foundation of the world, Jesus knew what he would do for you and for me. The only thing I can do is offer my life as a living sacrifice because of his sacrifice. Tomorrow will be History Tuesday, we'll complete the book of 2 Chronicles with chapters 33 through 36. If you have a comment, a question, a prayer request, or a praise report. Send a boostagram. Or leave a voice message at +1-951-732-8511. Or if you have a prayer request or a praise report, go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com. If you've got a question or if you've got a comment, go to comment.lifespringmedia.com. Or send an email to me at steve@lifespringmedia.com Jingle 19:42 Lifespringmedia.com/support Steve Webb 19:55 Brother Scott did today's show art. Thank you, Brother Scott. And thanks also to Sister Denise, Michael Haner, Jason Paschall, and Sister Brittaney. The team. They do so much for me. And thank you, Beloved, for your gift of time. Until tomorrow, may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye. Speaker 1 20:16 The Lifespring! Media family of programs are made possible by the generous support of listeners like you. Thank you. Transcribed by https://otter.ai