HAPPY IS THE PEOPLE WHOSE GOD IS THE LORD

"Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and Who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places."  (Deuteronomy33:29)

The blessings and promises that God bestowed upon Israel in the Old Testament were but foreshadows of everything that He has given to the believers in Christ.  Christ was always going to be the fulfillment of God's great plan.  He was the Tree of Life in the beginning of creation, and He is the Tree of Life in the closing chapter of the Revelation of John.  Though the prophecies of old were spoken to Israel after the flesh, most of them have their broader fulfillment in spiritual Israel which is the church of Jesus Christ - that body of believers (both Jew and gentile) who have been born again and are bound together not by any particular doctrine, creed, or bloodline, but by the Spirit of the living God.  "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."  (Romans 2:28,29)

Considering all of this, I was blessed this week when I read the verse in Deuteronomy above, and received it as a message from my heavenly Father directly to my heart.  "Happy art thou, O Israel," might as well have read "happy art thou, O Daniel."  The word of God washed over me, gave me new courage to fight the good fight of faith, and encouraged me to trust in the promises that the Father has given to those who love Him.  This is how the Lord broke it down for me:

·         "Happy art thou, O Israel."  I have every reason to be happy.  I have been redeemed by the blood of my Savior Jesus Christ, and am being changed little by little into His likeness.  The Potter has taken this shapeless lump of clay, and the shambles of my past life, and is molding me into a vessel of honor who will bring Him glory.  Being happy is as much a matter of rejecting the things that make me anxious and unhappy as it is a matter of emphasizing all the things I have to be thankful and joyful about.  I must refuse thoughts that lead me into a cycle of worry and doubt and choose rather to fill my mind with those things that are true, pure, honest, and thankworthy.  (Philippians 4:6-8) 

·         "Who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD."  There is not another people on earth who are so blessed and so cherished by God as we who have been saved by faith in the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  God considers us a holy nation, and a people nwho have been set apart for His glory.  His eyes are always on His children, and He knows what we need even before we ask.  "For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?"  (Deuteronomy 4:7)

·         "The shield of thy help, and Who is the sword of thy excellency!"  God is both a sword and shield to me.  A shield to protect me from the attacks of the enemy, and a sword to defend me and allow me to take the offense.  Ephesians 6:17 compares the sword of the Spirit to the Word of God.  Like a sharp sword, God's Word dissects and lays open our true intentions in order to reveal the truth.  As the priests in the Old Testament used a sharp instrument to flay open the sacrificial animals and reveal all of the inner organs, so God uses His Word to reveal our hearts and our inner motivations.  Ephesians 6:16 tells us that faith is like a shield that can quench every fiery arrow that Satan directs our way.

·         "And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee."  Jesus referred to Satan as the father of lies.  He will twist and pervert the truth in order to confuse, discourage, and cast doubt on the children of God.  If he can, he will get us to doubt our very salvation and the love that the Father has for us.  This is why we must be grounded in the Word of God.  God's Word is truth, and the truth exposes every lie just as the light chases away the darkness.  When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness after His 40 day fast, He used God's Word to counter the things that the enemy suggested to Him.  For this reason, Satan ran out of ammunition and had to withdraw from Christ for a time.  Likewise, we have power through the Word to expose the lies that our enemy would use against us.

·         "And thou shalt tread upon their high places."  God has called me to walk on holy ground with Him.  I mustn't walk in my own strength or according to my own will, but instead, I am to "put off [my] shoes from off [my] feet" and learn to walk in the Spirit in obedience to God's directions.  I can conjure up all kinds of strategies and plans to fight the good fight, but if it is not God Who is directing my efforts, they are all in vain.  My enemy has the high ground (or high places) and it is going to take God to give me the advantage that will win the day.  As Joshua looked across the plain of Jericho at the fortified city that stood before him, he may have been formulating different strategies to take the city.  The Angel of the Lord met him there, however.  When Joshua challenged this being by asking whether He was for Israel or for their enemies, He simply said, "Nay, but as Captain of the Lord's host am I now come."  We often get things very backward.  We want to know that God is with us, or on our side in all our endeavors.  Truth is, God is on God's side!  It is I who must decide which side I will take.  I can't go through life doing as I please and ask God to be with me regardless.  It is I who must seek His will and then decide if I am going to follow.  Oh, how we want to be leaders, but it is how to be a follower that is necessary.  Oh, how we want to be masters, but it is servants that God is desiring.  Circling a city for seven days and expecting the walls to fall down doesn't seem to be a sound strategy, but it worked!  And God got all the glory instead of Joshua or the generals.

I am thankful for all of the promises that fill the Bible and are directed to those who love the Lord.  It is those promises that give us hope and equip us with strength to overcome all that life throws at us.  Seek the Lord, Beloved, through His Word, and glean for yourselves all of the promises that God has in store for you.