Deuteronomy 5:1
This verse is at the beginning of the chapter in which Moses reminds the Israelites of the commandments God gave them at Mount Horeb. These commandments, which we usually refer to as the 10 Commandments, were an integral part of the covenant the people made with God. These were His conditions set on that covenant. In the covenant the people were required to follow God and honour the commandments.
So what did the commandments say?
We are to have only God as our god. We are not to worship anything else, whether it be a false god, made up by human imagination, or an object. We are to put God first.
As an extension of that we are not to worship any carved gods. God reminds us that He will punish to the third or fourth generation those who hate Him. God also reminds us that He is faithful to those who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.
God also does not want us to use His name as a curse or to use His name irreverently. We are to treat God with the respect and honour due Almighty God.
We are to remember to set aside time to focus on God. That is spoken of here as the Sabbath, but these days, with so many people required to work on Sunday, it is difficult to get that one day off to focus on God. So we need to ensure we give time away from our busy lives to spend with God. If Jesus required quiet time with God then we need more time.
Remember, not to get highly stressed about this. God understands what is going on in your life. He knows, however, that we all need to spend time with Him to give us the strength and faith to live our busy lives. I find it hard spending that time with God and frequently am critical of myself for my lack of time. Recently, God has been showing me the many ways I can snatch moments to be with Him. This ranges from a fairly open ended conversation with Him that goes on all the time, to time spent just sitting with Him. The important thing is to not get caught up in legalism as the Jewish people of Jesus’ time had done. God did not intend these commandments to be a burden too heavy to carry. He gave us these commandments to show us how to follow Him.
Another aspect of the sabbath is to remember all God has done for us and to express our gratitude for that.
The commandments that follow tell us to respect our parents. This does not mean we should not hold our parents to task for abuse. Sadly, there will always be parents that have to be walked away from. I guess they come under the heading of those who hate God. But for the rest of us, we must respect our parents.
We are not to murder, or commit adultery, act dishonestly or steal, lie or in any way defame our neighbour or covet the things our neighbour possesses. And we are not to covet the wife of our neighbour either.
God instructed the Israelites to be careful to do what God commanded. In other words they were to be diligent in following the commandments and were to think carefully before acting. God instructed them not to go to the right or left, but to follow Him. They were to stay on that narrow path, walking straight along it. The benefit of this? To have a good, long life in the land He was giving them. When we seek to follow God, no matter what difficulties we face in life, it is always easier to cope with them when God is our team leader.
 

Deuteronomy 1:26-36, 6:4-25
Deuteronomy 1 reiterates the admonishment of the Numbers 32 reading, to follow God wholeheartedly. Again Moses talks about the people’s rebellion after the 12 went to explore Canaan. He described the people as:
• Peevish,
• discontented,
• not trusting God despite Him fighting for them in the past.
• Failing to rely on God,
• Failing to remain steadfast to God, despite Him guiding them by cloud by day and fire by night. And despite Him going ahead of them to find a place for them to pitch their tents. And despite Him providing manna everyday.
• Unlike Caleb who wholly followed God.
In the chapter 6 reading we are told to follow God wholeheartedly. We are reminded that God is one Lord, the only Lord. And we are told to love the Lord our God with all our minds and hearts and entire being and with all our might. We are admonished to keep those words at the forefront of our brains and give them the highest priority in our hearts. We should meditate on them constantly. Teach them to our children. Talk about them constantly. We are reminded not to forget what God has done for us once He gives us what we want.  We are to reverently fear and serve God. To not follow other gods, either ones of our own making or those others follow. We must endeavour to keep God commands and do what is right and good in God’s sight. We must also teach our children what God’s statutes and precepts are. Finally, to follow God wholeheartedly we are to conform to God’s will in thought, word and action.
That is wholeheartedness and it is a crucial part of following God. Without wholeheartedness we cannot follow God.
 

I must apologise for the gap in my blog. Normally I let my readers know when I am taking a break, but circumstances overtook me and I was not able to do that. The blog is resuming today and will continue on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Numbers 32:1-27

“Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly …” v11a NIV.

“They weren’t interested in following me – their hearts weren’t in it.” The Message

“… They have not wholly followed me.” Amplified.

Verse 11 really stood out for me when I read this section. I saw in that verse the directive from God to follow Him wholeheartedly. I found the interpretations in The Message and Amplified Bible were also illuminating.
The Reubenites, Gadites and half tribe of Manasseh were accused by Moses of being like the Israelites were forty years earlier, after sending the 12 in to explore Canaan. Ten of them gave a bad report and the people chose to follow them. These ten discouraged the Israelites, just as Moses was accusing the men who came to him now. It is human nature to look around and see what others are doing instead of keeping our eyes on God and His word. When this happens standards of obedience fall.
When we choose to follow what others are doing, instead of taking a different path to follow God, we demonstrate that we are not interested in following God. Our hearts are not in the task of following God. We are not wholly following Him.
Peer pressure is intense and it can be very hard to resist giving in to that pressure. But every time we choose to not challenge something another person says about God; every time we see others sinning and say nothing; every time we join in with that sinning; and every time we choose to not follow God’s directive to us, we are not following God wholeheartedly.
When we make that choice to follow Jesus, we must do it wholeheartedly. We must have our hearts in the task. We must desire strongly to follow Jesus. Then we will be following God.