Women of Firm Faith

Verse 1-4, “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people. And he shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel: Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them; for the Lord your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ ”  The command for the Israelites was to trust in God, walking by faith, not by sight.  Just because their enemies had size or strength or numbers, they were no match for God.  When you have big armies and lots of horses (posessions and worldly power), you can put your trust in your own strength and forget God.  Psalms 20...

Verses 1-7, “When the Lord your God has cut off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. You shall prepare roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there. And this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in time past— as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live; lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way ...

Verses 1-5, “The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them. And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.”  The Levites were not allowed to own property, but were to rely solely on God's provision.  Therefore, He gives the Israelites instructions as to what to give, unto the Lord.  Often we confuse our giving as unto...

Verses 17:1, “You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.”  When you offer a sacrifice to the Lord, it needs to have value. To offer Him your worthless leftovers and keep back the best for yourself, when He is the one who causes you to be blessed and multiply in the first place, is a terrible insult to Him.  Malachi 1:7-10, “You offer defiled food on My altar, But say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’ And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?” Says the Lord of hosts. “But now entreat God’s favor, That He may be gracious to us. While this is being done by your hands, Will He accept you favorably?” Sa...

Deuteronomy 16:1, “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.”  The Passover was symbolic of Jesus, our Passover lamb, whose blood protects us from the wrath of God.  After the Passover, the Jews were to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Purging out leaven or sin should directly follow after being saved.  Verses 16-17, “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.”  Four of the feasts were spoken of again in this chapter, emphasizing the importance of keeping them, all with their own significance.  You can read more on th...

Verses 1-6, “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts.  And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord ’s release. Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother, except when there may be no poor among you; for the Lord will greatly bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— only if you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. For the Lord your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.” Forgiveness of debt is a godly principle.  After all, the Lord forgave us of the debt we owed, s...

Verses 1-2, “You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”  Cutting yourself and shaving your head happened to be pagan mourning practices, which God did not want His children to participate in.  He doesn't want His children learning any practices or customs from the unsaved actually.  Jeremiah 10:1-3, “Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: 'Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile...”  Futile means that these ways are pointless and done in vain, but when you choose the ways of the world over God, it angers Him.  James 4:4, ...

Verses 1-5, “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst....

Verses 1-4, “These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.”  God makes it very clear that He does not want people to worship Him using the same practices that are used to worship false gods.  To avoid any temptation, the places where pagan worship was conducted were to be completely destroyed.  Also the created things that were used in such worship were also to be destroyed, lest they begin to worship ...

Verses 1-2, “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm...”  God commands your love and obedience, and therefore we must choose to do so.  It should not be left up to your feelings, whether you want to or not.  Some days we don't feel like caring for our home and family, but we do it anyway.  If nothing else, let fear be your motivator.  Understanding that God will chasten those He loves for disobedience.  Hebrews 12:6, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”  Israel is being reminded here of God's chastening, so they will not repeat the mistakes of their past.”  Verses 8-12, “Therefore you shall keep every ...

Verses 1-5, “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in 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 which I had made; and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me.” Moses broke the original two tablets, but even worse than that, the Israelites broke God's law.  Part of repenting involves getting back to the obedience of the law, and the...

Verses 1-3, “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.”  The Israelites were being called to do the impossible in the flesh, but God on the other hand, is a consuming fire. Jeremiah 32:27, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?”  When we are put in impossible situations, that's when God can get the glory.  But somehow man can still think they deserve the credit, so God reminds them of the reali...

Verses 1-5, “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.” We often get so big in our own eyes, thinking that we are self sufficient, and stop relying on God.  Therefore He allows us wilderness experiences...

Verses 1-4, “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.” God would use Israel to bring judgement upon these nations for their wickedness, which is why they were to be completely destroyed.  He did not call Israel to partial victory, and doesn't call us to partial victory over sin in our lives.  ...