Thurs.’s Devo - The Victory is the Lord’s

Read: Deuteronomy 18:1-20:20; Luke 9:28-50; Psalm 73:1-28; Proverbs 12:10 The Israelites were not to forget about the Levites. The Levites were to eat from the gifts given to the Lord and have no land of their own. God was their possession and they were God’s possession. The priests were also to be given part of the offerings of grain, new wine, olive oil and wool. God warned them again and again not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living in the land. The first thing he addressed was sacrificing their children. They were also never to practice fortune-telling, sorcery, or interpreting omens or engaging in witchcraft, spells, mediums or psychics. They were never to call forth the dead. God’s answer for that was his prophets. They had asked not to hear from the Lord directly so God would send them his prophets to speak to them. Moses explained to them again the purpose of cities of refuge for the person who accidentally killed someone and had no witness. He could run to a city of refuge and present his case to the priests. They would investigate the case and decide if his story was true. If it was, he would be given a place to live within the city of refuge and the murderer’s relatives would not be able to kill him to avenge the blood of their slain. When the high priest died, the city of refuge was emptied of those who found refuge there and they were free to leave and not be hunted. If the priests found that the man intentionally killed the person, the murderer was to be turned over to the avenger of blood…the slain’s relative. Spiritually, the avenger of blood is the Lord. The person who accidentally kills is us - we are the sinner who deserves death. When we get saved we find Jesus as our city of refuge and we are set free when we atone Jesus’ blood for our sin. If a person brings a false accusation against another and the priests learn the truth, they were to impose on the liar the same sentence he was requiring for his enemy. This was all to purge the land of sin. When they went to war against weapons and people stronger than them, they were not to fear because God would fight for them and give them victory. The officers were to address their troops and find out if any were just newly engaged to be married. If so, they were to go home and marry. If they were afraid, they were to go home because their fear would be a hindrance to the troops. To us spiritually, I think this means that if we are facing a huge battle, then we need to be all in. If we are not able to be “all in”, then we do not need to engage the enemy because he will defeat us. When they came to their enemies not in the land God had given them, they were to first offer them a peace treaty. If they refused to take it then the Israelites were free to take the city. If their enemies took the offer of peace, then the people would be their slaves. But, when they came to the cities and places in their promised land, they were to kill everyone because they had been sentenced by God as guilty and worthy of death. There was nothing to save. They were given the command not to kill the fruitful trees. They could make weapons of the ones that did not bear fruit. Trees have to do with people, spiritually so they were like the people out of their land. In Luke, Jesus brought Peter, John and James up on a mountain to pray. While he was praying, Jesus transformed into his heavenly body and they were able to see him in his glory. With him were Moses and Elijah and they were talking about Jesus’ departure from this world. Both Moses and Elijah did not die natural deaths, God took them just like God was going to do to Jesus. While Peter was wanting to set up shelters for Moses and Elijah, God spoke from heaven and said, “This is my Son, my Chosen One, Listen to him.” The next day, Satan was there to challenge Jesus. It came in the body of a man’s only son. The evil spirit took hold of the boy and did awful things to him. It had to be a warning that that was what Satan had planned for Jesus. It was Satan’s intimidation tactic to keep Jesus from Jerusalem. Jesus rebuked the spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father. That was exactly what was about to happen to Jesus. He would be abused by Satan but death would bring his healing and he would be returned to his Father in heaven. Lord, give us eyes to see what You are doing in our lives and that your plan is for total victory. You always win!