“I Shall Be Safe”
Deuteronomy 29:18-19
18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,
19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is telling the people of Israel about God’s final instructions before they enter into the Promised Land. After rehashing a good part of the law, Moses then begins to speak of two possible futures for Israel: A future under God’s blessing, and a future under God’s curse. Then, we get into chapter 29, where God’s covenant (promise) of establishing Israel as His people in the Promised Land is affirmed. Finally, we get to the verses I quoted.
Beware!
The very presence of that word should cause us to perk up our ears and listen. We need to be careful about the believers in our midst! Now, of course this doesn’t mean to distrust everyone and assume everyone’s a heretic, but it means that we need to always be on our guard against wolves in the midst of sheep. As pastor Mark Driscoll put it (I’m paraphrasing), you can’t treat everyone like sheep in a church, because some are really wolves and will always be wolves, and if you let them into the pasture with your sheep, they’re just going to eat your sheep.
Based on what translation you read here, you can get different senses of the passage. But in the ESV I see two ‘bewares,’ and in the KJV I see two ‘lests’ in the same places, so Moses seems to be describing two different types of people. The first is in the first part of verse 18. These are the people who turn away from God and go serve other gods. While we might not have Baal and Asherah and Molech today, we do have sex, money, and power acting as gods in our society today. It is easy for people to turn to these things, and it is obvious when they do so.
But the second ‘beware’ is much more subtle. It speaks of a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. A root is underground and hidden, which means that it’s not obviously staring everyone in the face. But a deadly root can do a lot of damage, because they are difficult to pull out and because the food for the tree goes through the roots.
Why is this root so poisonous? Verse 19 has the answer. This poisonous, bitter root is the man or woman who believes that he is safe, even though he continues in his way of sin.
Does this sound relevant to you? If not, let me rephrase it. “one who, when he hears the words of God’s promises to him, tells himself that he gets to take part in these promises, even though he continues to rebel against God.”
How can people convince themselves that they are safe? This isn’t really a hard question. If people want to be safe, they’re going to rationalize their way into safety. I’ve done this, and I know what it’s like. I remember when I acquired a copy of Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 that was not legal. Oh, man! I wanted to rationalize it every way I could because I wanted to have cheap software, and I wanted to serve God. I’ve seen it happen with relationships, too. One time, I wanted to go out with a woman who is not a Christian. She was great - smart, funny, cute, and fun to be around. I wanted to have one foot in the world, and one foot in the Kingdom.
What it boils down to is the simple fact that we as humans want to do our own thing. When we become Christians, we begin to desire what God wants for us, but our old desires of our past life will never completely leave us. So, in our Christian walks, there will be many times where we get thrown into conflict, and we have to choose between our old desires and our new ones, between our fleshly and worldly desires and our Godly desires.
Moses’ successor, Joshua, understood this. After Israel went and conquered the Promised Land, they again decided to renew their covenant, before everyone settled down to live their lives in the place that God had allocated for them. Joshua told his people this (emphasis mine):
Joshua 24:15
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
To make this choice is hard. And, since the covenant had to be renewed a couple of times, it seems clear that it is a decision that we must continue to reaffirm. Because the spiritual things are so much harder to grasp, and the things of the world and flesh are often staring us right in the face, it is difficult to choose what is right. But it is the charge that we have, and we have to continue to fight to follow God and His laws.
Do you think you are safe? Don’t be afraid to ask the question, but be ready to change if the answer isn’t what you want to hear. This is important! To rationalize yourself doesn’t do anything but bury your conscience. It’s like being in a burning building, and telling yourself that you’ll be fine. No! You’re going to burn down with the building…get out of there!
If you want to know more about how to be safe, click here to read about salvation or click here to get in touch with us.
Grace and peace,
Brendan
