“With your own eyes you saw these great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders.”
~ Deuteronomy 29:3
Hi James and Ellen,
How do you feel as you are saying goodbye to someone who you know? Are you okay with saying goodbye to your ma and/or dad when your ma and/or dad drop you off at your school? Are you okay with saying goodbye to a kid friend who came over to your house to play with you? Are you okay with saying goodbye to your Aunt Kelli or Aunt Lynn and/or Uncle Chris when they get ready to leave after having spent time visiting with you? Are you okay with saying goodbye to your grandmaa and grandpaa when your grandmaa and grandpaa leave to return to a country like Guatemala and they will not be back again for three or so years. Do you think that your grandmaa and grandpaa are okay with saying goodbye to you when they know that they will not see you again for possibly three or so years? Your grandmaa and grandpaa do not like to say goodbye to you. Your grandmaa and grandpaa wish that they could always live close to you. Do you think that your grandmaa and grandpaa were okay with saying goodbye each time when your dad and Aunt Lynn got on a small plane to fly to Tambo – a New Tribe’s boarding school, where your dad and Aunt Lynn went to school? Saying a goodbye at times is not easy to do. A goodbye may at times be a very emotional moment. There will be times when a goodbye that you say will be the very last goodbye that you will say to a grandparent, aunt, uncle, friend . . . your grandpaa’s dad has not been in good health for a number of years. Each time that your grandpaa has said goodbye to his dad, your grandpaa has thought that he possibly had said his last goodbye to his dad here on planet Earth. Your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn left by plane for Bolivia the last week of August of 1978. Before your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn left for Bolivia, your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn stopped in Volga, South Dakota to say goodbye to your grandpaa’s dad and ma. Your grandpaa’s grandma – Grandma Groot, came to the farm where your grandpaa grew up as a kid to say goodbye to your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn. Grandma Groot was in her mid-nineties the last time that your grandpaa saw his Grandma Groot. Grandma Groot would always want a big hug from your grandpaa. While your grandpaa was giving his Grandma Groot the last big hug that your grandpaa would ever have the chance to give to his Grandma Groot, Grandma Groot told your grandpaa that as long as she remained living on planet Earth that she would give your grandmaa and grandpaa ten dollars a month. Your grandpaa really hoped that he would be able to have the opportunity to see his Grandma Groot again one day. When your grandpaa told his Grandma Groot that he would see her again someday, Grandma Groot told your grandpaa that she would not be still alive on planet Earth in four years. Your grandpaa’s Grandma Groot looked really happy and proud of your grandpaa at that moment while your grandpaa felt sad at the same moment. Two of your grandpaa’s Grandma Groot’s kids were pastors and at least one of your grandpaa’s Grandma Groot’s grandkids was a pastor. Your grandpaa thinks that the reason that his Grandma Groot was so happy as she said goodbye to your grandpaa was because she now could claim a missionary in her family. Your grandpaa’s Grandma Groot about two years later passed through death’s gate into heaven.
Deuteronomy 29 has Moses beginning to say His goodbyes to God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids – the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids. God had delegated Moses forty or so years earlier to lead His specially chosen guys, gals and kids. God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids – after having defeated the king of Heshbon and the king of Bashan, were now camped on the east side of the Jordon River. God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids were now ready to go into the land that God had promised them that they would always have to live in as their very own if . . . Moses called a meeting with all the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids to say goodbye to them. Moses used this last meeting to say a few things which God’s specially chosen guy and gals needed to hear. When God’s specially chosen guys and gals first could have gone into the land that . . . God’s specially chosen guys and gals got really intimidated and . . . for a punishment for not trusting in Him, God had His specially chosen guys, gals and kids do barren wilderness time for forty years. Also as part of their punishment, God had every guy and gal twenty years old and older – except for Caleb and Joseph, die during those forty years. Caleb and Joseph were the two spies who wanted to walk right into the land that . . . some of the guys and gals who Moses was talking to at this time were just little kids when they left Egypt with their mas and dads. These guys and gals saw what Moses wrote in verse 3 “With your own eyes you saw these great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders.” These kids grew up to be dads and mas. These kids who are now dads and mas did not have their clothes or their sandals wear out as they wandered around in a desert for forty years. These kids who are now dads and mas never lacked for food to eat. These kids who are now dads and mas are the ones getting the opportunity to go into the land that their dads and mas had been promised that they would always have to live in as their very own if . . . as Moses talks with God’s specially chosen guys and gals, Moses adamantly tells them how they are to act in the land that . . . Moses warns God’s specially chosen guys and gals to remember what it was like when stone, wood and metal idol gods were worshipped in Egypt. Moses reminds God’s specially chosen guys and gals to only worship God – or else!
What Moses said when he said his goodbye to God’s specially chosen guys and gals – that they were to only worship God – or else, still applies today for your grandpaa, grandmaa, dad, ma, Aunt Lynn, Uncle Chris, you . . .
Deuteronomy 29 (167)