Before we get to today’s article, I just want to mention that am writing from the perspective of a man that has experienced many of the challenges of which I write…. and those spiritual battles continue daily. The articles are implications of what it means to obey the commandment to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They require some reflection and are particularly for Christians who, as Peter would say, are diligently seeking to confirm their calling and are making every effort to supplement their faith. Said more succinctly, serious Christians. If you know other believers who desire to walk more faithfully with the Lord, please forward an article to them and tell them to sign up for future articles. Thanks so much!
Continuing our search for parenting instructions, we return to Deuteronomy. I’m going to put aside chapter 7 for a moment and come back to it after we survey the remainder of the book. Essentially, God continues to repeat Himself in chapter 8 and all the way through chapter 32. We have talked about God repeating His commands and instructions in past articles and it demands me repeating the observation of such once again. We need to be clear that God does not have a “repetition problem.” He did not forget something that He has already said, nor did the God of perfection make any mistake. He knows our frame and therefore, He knows that we NEED to hear it again and again. Frankly, I did not expect this to land on me as it has, but it has especially because of His repetition.
For the record, His commands regarding children are repeated in 11:18-21 (frontlets and phylacteries, etc.), 31:13 (let the children hear the law be read), and in 32:46 after the song of Moses and just before his final blessing on Israel (that you may command all the words that Moses gave to the Israelites to their children). Then, with Joshua leading the Israelites, we see the priority of raising children to know God in Joshua 4:6, 4:21-22, specifically so they will be prepared to answer their children’s questions when they come.
Now that we have covered the incredible commands about parenting that we have found in the writings of Moses, we would travel next to the book of Proverbs which is loaded with wisdom for parenting and at least two of the Psalms (78 and 145) that have a backward look at what God had commanded in Deuteronomy. But for now, I want to go back to Deuteronomy 7:6-11 to drill into something that hit me in a deeper way. The passage says:
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
The benefits of studying and thinking deeply about God’s word are so important for the Christian. I have read that Christians belong to the Lord, but seeing how God spoke to the Israelites has actually caused that truth to land on me in a more significant way. Just one verse, verse 6, made me realize that God has a view of His people that is profoundly personal for Him. Without any compulsion or need motivating Him from outside of Himself, He has rightly made a claim on a particular people. The scripture says that these people are holy to the Lord and in this context, the word holy means separated out from everyone else. We see this idea in the New Testament as well in Romans 12:1-2 when the Bible says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
And again in Colossians 3:12, we see this language of God setting His people apart and referring to them using almost the same words that He used in Deuteronomy 7: Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, etc. God has made a unilateral decision to choose these people and He describes them as His treasure. We are not part of making that happen- it is done solely by Him. Think about it- did the God of the universe, the God that has no needs, the God who knows that the greatest thing of value in all creation from eternity past to eternity future is God, actually said that these people are His treasured possession? It is an amazing statement, and it signifies a level of love and commitment that you and I cannot fathom… but we should make an incredible effort to understand.
In the book of Ephesians, we get additional insight into the mind of God. In Ephesians 5:25-27, Paul writes, Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. And in verses 31 and 32, he says, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
The fact that Christ gave Himself up for Christians and that God views believers and Christ as one flesh illustrates both the greatest love and the greatest unity that we could ever imagine in a relationship. It happens because God is showing us that we are His treasured possession.
And what is expected in this marriage like relationship? Well, the context of Deuteronomy 7 is that God would not have His people be exposed to the idols of the world that they were going in to conquer. They were commanded to destroy pretty much everything in their path and to not intermarry with the other nations because they would be ensnared by their idols. As you know if you have been following past articles, idolatry is God’s greatest concern for His people. He has an absolute hatred for idolatry and when His people fall into that sin, it is as if His treasured possession has cheated on Him in marriage. In Exodus 34:14-16, He refers to Himself as a jealous God and those who cheat on Him are whoring after other gods. Incredibly strong words. We are holy to Him. That is, He has separated us for a special relationship with Him and no other.
So now we arrive at the next type of holiness, and I will ask the question with the word spelled a little differently: are you holy to the Lord or wholly to the Lord?
Here is what Paul writes to the church at Colossae in 1:21-22: And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holyand blameless and above reproach before him. In this context, Paul is not asking them to be separate because that has already been done by the Lord, but he is telling them that they should be striving to lead lives that are no longer like their previous evil lives, but lives that reflect their obedience and love for Christ.
In a similar way, Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:13-16: Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” Here Peter is telling them that because God is sinless, the believers should throw off the sinful passions of the life they had when they were ignorant of the gospel.
In both cases and in many others throughout the New Testament letters to the churches, the call is to lead lives that are wholly dedicated to their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul writes, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3)
Getting back to the question, are you holy to the Lord or wholly to the Lord?, the answer for every believer should be, both! We see that we are holy because God has set us apart, but we live out that holy, set apart by God life by wholly obeying Him in every part of our life.
I believe that I have seen only the lowest level of the massive mountain that is called God’s love for His people. I was His enemy and now I am His treasured possession. He has chosen me and all of that has been made possible because He was willing to send His greatest store of wealth, that is Christ, to pay the sin ransom that I could never pay. His kindness has led me to daily repentance. May this holy creature be ever more wholly for Him.
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Last modified: April 14, 2023
