God Who goes before us

Deut 9:3 “Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee.”

In the above verse, we see the Lord encouraging the people of Israel. Moses writes beautifully as to how the Lord is the one Who goes before them. This particular passages states how the Israelites need to inherit Canaan and what are the struggles present there as they do not have a clear plan and are stuck in the middle, lagging behind from moving forward. So God is again confirming to them that He will go before them and lead them. Even today God says that He will go before us. Even through our journey of Wilderness, He prepares a way for us, meets our needs and travels along with us.  Even when the Israelites are worried about the Canaanites, God assures them about His presence with them. Similarly, He is a God who will meet our needs, fight for us and bring us victory. In Deut 9:1” Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,” God says “Hear”. He calls out “hear, O Israel!” and proclaims the things He is about to do. Israelites are upset after hearing what the 12 spies sent to Canaan came and told them. But God wanted them to listen to Him rather than them. God wanted the people to be one minded in listening to Him. Only when we listen to God carefully, we will be able to take the next step forward. Let us meditate on how our lives will be when God goes before us and what we need to do on our part for this.

You shall be great

Deut 9:2 “A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!”

In this verse, God tells how great and tall the people of Anak look but how stronger the Israelites are to drive them out. God says we will be stronger than those who are greater and taller than us – we will become greater than the great because He who is in us and with us is greater than he that is in the world. This is the blessing we possess when we have a God who goes before us. Even so, when we cannot face certain situations, we need to know that our God who goes before us causes us to be greater than the situations around us. We read in the bible about David, Goliath where the Philistines army were huge but David in all his faith said he comes in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel who is a great God and defeated Goliath. Today God says that He will make us great. He will go forth before us and make the crooked paths straight. Whatever seems bigger and taller before us can be overcome when God is with us.  God gives a vision and wants to enlarge and multiply us when we hear Him out. He is with us, goes before us to fulfil those things and we are not alone.

You shall drive them out

Deut 9:2,3 “A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak! Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee” In these verse, God is about to work on their behalf and is trying to make the Israelites understand what He is about to do. God assures them they will be able to drive out their enemies as He is the One going before them. God says we will drive out those greater than us. In Numbers 13:26 – 14:6, we can see what the 12 spies sent to Canaan came back and gave as a bad report about the Caananites which troubled the Israelites. They lost hope, feared dread. This is when we read in Deut 9:1 where God expets the people to listen to Him. He gives them a vision and their vision enlarged when they heard what God was going to do.  Similarly, many news give us a fear instead of a hope but our God who goes before us is able to drive out the fear that we have. When we learn what God wants to do using us, we need to believe that we will be able to do not on our own but because of God who is going to go before us. Israelites saw the strength and numbers of the Anaks, they saw concerning their armies in a worldly perspective and so they thought they would not be victorious. Fear came upon them as they looked up the Anaks. Instead God wants us to look upto Him, our Great big God. God is able to drive out those who have captured what God has for His people. He has a unique blessing in store for us. He will grant to us what is ours.

You shall inherit

Deut 9:5” Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” In this verse, God says it is not because of their righteousness that he will drive out their enemies but it is because of His sheer grace and the promise he sware unto their fathers. He will fulfill the promises He gave to our forefathers and enable us to inherit many blessings. Our God fulfils what he spoke. Even if we forget, He is a God who remembers what he spoke and fulfils. He will give us the blessings of inheritance. In Deut 9:4-6, Moses mentions thrice that clearly it is not because of Israel’s righteousness or integrity. Likewise, our blessings are only because of God’s grace. When God goes before us, we will be able to inherit what he has in store for us.