“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”
~ Deuteronomy 4:9
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to reminisce? Reminiscing is recalling, recollecting or harking back at something that has taken place. Moses was reminiscing or recalling, recollecting or harking back when he wrote what is now Deuteronomy 4. Your grandpaa in these missives that he sends to your dad and ma to read to you will sometimes reminisce or recall, recollect or hark back on something that has taken place in his life. Moses was chosen by God to lead His specially chosen guys, gals and kids out of the land of Egypt to a land area that He promised three guys – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that their descendants would always have to live in as their very own land. Your grandpaa was chosen by God to be who he is today – a guy, missionary, husband, dad and grandpaa. Moses and your grandpaa were chosen by God before He created planet Earth to do what they did or are doing – and who they were or are. God created Moses and your grandpaa for His sake – not for Moses’ sake and not for your grandpaa’s sake. God customized a unique life journey for every single soul – life, that He created and banked before He created planet Earth. God’s customized, unique life journey for Moses was for him to have a dad and ma who were both from the Israelite people group’s Levi tribal clan. God’s customized, unique life journey for Moses was for him to be born in Egypt, to be placed by his sis in a tiny reed boat to keep Egyptians from killing him, to be found by Pharaoh’s daughter, to live for forty years in the residence of a Pharaoh, to receive the best education that a guy over 3500 years ago could get, to kill an Egyptian guy, to herding sheep for forty years in the solitude of a desert and to have the privilege of leading a reluctant, complaining, disobeying family of over two million guys, gals and kids – with all their stuff and animals, into an arid, hot, barren, unforgiving desert just so that God could complete the same promise that He made with three different guys.
Moses learned a lot of lessons over the 120 years that he lived on planet Earth. Moses learned that worshipping a god that had been chipped out of stone, carved out of wood or molded out of metal was not the way to go. Moses learned that making any object in the sky – such as the sun, moon, star, galaxy or planet as something to worship was not the way to go. Moses learned that disobeying God – by not worshipping Him in the ways that He expected to be worshipped, was not the way to go. Moses learned that getting mad – after he did not do something exactly the way that God had told him to do it, was not the way to go. God had punishments already ready for His specially chosen guys and gals – and for Moses, when God’s specially chosen guys and gals – and Moses, did not listen to Him. Instead of marching directly into the land that God had told His specially chosen guys and gals that they would always have to live in as their very own land, God gave them a forty year timeout by having them hang out in a scorching, sweltering, bleak desert over those forty years because they decided that it was too scary and dangerous to face real life giants. Moses only got to look at the land which God had told His specially chosen guys and gals that they would always have to live in as their very own land instead of being able to go into this land area that God had promised his forefathers – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that their descendants would always have as their land to live in as their very own land because he let his emotions – specifically anger, take control over his life instead of just doing what God had asked him to do – when God told him how to tap a rock for it to give up water for His specially chosen guys, gals and kids to drink. Moses learned that the life lessons that he learned throughout his life needed to be passed on to kids like you – kids whose dads and mas were from the different Israelite people group’s tribal clans, so that they would not make the same mistakes that he made while he was growing up and that he made while he was leading God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids – and the same mistakes that the kids’ dads and mas made on their forty year exodus to the land which God had told them they would always have to live in as their very own land. Verse 9 says, “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”
Just as God the Spirit told Moses to tell His specially chosen guys and gals that they were to teach their kids the lessons and truths that they had learned from God the Father, your grandpaa knows that he also has been told by God the Spirit to make sure that his kids and his grandkids – you, hear and learn about the myriad of life lessons that God the Spirit has taught your grandpaa over his sixty-two years (seventy-nine years now as of this editing) of living on planet Earth. Your grandpaa’s dad made sure that your grandpaa learned from the life of guys like Moses. Your grandpaa’s dad was influential in seeing that a school was built in the town – which was Volga, South Dakota, where your grandpaa grew up as a kid where your grandpaa was taught Biblical truths and about the lives of guys found in the Bible like Moses. Your grandpaa’s grandpa on his dad’s side and your grandpaa’s grandpa on his ma’s side were influential in building a church in Volga where Biblical truths and true stories of guys like Moses were taught to kids like your grandpaa’s dad and your grandpaa. When you are as old as your dad and ma, your grandpaa prays that you will reminisce to your kids about the life lessons that God the Spirit has and is teaching you. Your grandpaa often reminisces now about how his Father God has answered his prayers and has fulfilled His promises.
Deuteronomy 4 (360)