“From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here ,you’ve been rebellious against the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 9:7b)
The Israelites were still perched on the border of the Promised Land as Moses painstakingly delivered his last message to His people. If you feel tired of reading his re-teaching, imagine their distress at a thirty-four point sermon at the brink of Promised Land possession. I picture my kids on Christmas morning; wiggling through Luke 2 in a race to get to present-opening. Surely it was hard for God’s people to contain their excitement long enough to listen. Yet for Moses, this was his last opportunity to instill anything to his followers. He knew he was about to die on a mountain in Moab and he was unwilling to go without burning every drop of gas left in his tank.
He spent the first part of chapter 9 reminding the Israelites that they are not righteous. Though they will shake the wicked nations out of Canaan like dust from a rug; they were merely the arm of justice being exercised by Almighty God. Any goodness they would experience was by God’s grace alone, because they had been rebellious from the very beginning.
Moses gave the Israelites a sustained pause to look back and examine their unrighteousness. We read their recap and come to two conclusions:
Rebelliousness is our nature.
Obedience requires ongoing effort.
Honestly, I don’t have to dive too deep into the Israelites’ sordid details to relate with their struggle. I’m all too familiar with my own tendency toward rebellion. Interpersonal squabbles, complaint and idolatry have consistently pockmarked my journey from salvation to sanctification. My righteousness is as filthy rags.
We can feel really terrible about our many failures or we can read a bit of Apostle Paul’s personal experiences and realize we are not alone in our battle against flesh.
“I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead I do what I hate.” (Romans 7:15 NLT)
Paul went on to write about the forcible will of his sinful nature and I recognize my inner battle amidst words.
“Oh, what a miserable man I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to bey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” (Romans 7:24-25, 8:1-2 NIV)
Jesus blood covers our sinful nature and pays our price. What’s more, His Holy Spirit empowers us toward righteousness.
I realized the other day that there are two versions of Anna. One is faith filled and unwavering. She’s the one who routinely shows up in crisis, in the pulpit and for devotions each morning. But there’s another Anna as well; a watery-eyed whimpery thing who often lacks the strength the cope. She shows up in the long hours when no one is looking. She’s been here a lot lately, complaining about conditions and filling herself with distractions. I don’t like her at all.
I get to choose who shows up. In a crisis, I call on faith-filled Anna. Why can’t I beckon her to the day to day drudgeries?
The thing is, we cannot address what we won’t confess. We must honestly identify our rebellious nature before we can approach with reformation in hand.
Lord, help us to look back over our story with a realistic lens. Moses was painstaking in his survey of his people. Were their ears open? Did they hear? Open our eyes and ears as we search out our own rebellious nature. Remind us of Your blood covering and supernatural empowering. We get to choose what version of us shows up each day. Give us the determination to call out the faith-filled person You are equipping us to be. Amen.