Year 4, Day 152: Deuteronomy 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Now this is a great chapter where we can truly talk about identity.  The main point of Deuteronomy 1 is that Moses wants the opportunity to talk to the new generation before he goes and dies.  Moses wants to remind the people about who they are.  He wants to make sure they understand from where they are coming.  He wants them to have an opportunity to come face-to-face with their own humanity and have the ability to choose something else for their identity.

The Hebrew people – and all humanity, in truth – were rebellious.  They grumbled.  They whined.  They complained.  They refused to believe.  They refused to trust.  They refused to see with the eyes of God.  They focused on their own needs, their own way of thinking, and their own logic.  It didn’t matter what anyone else said, the only thing that made sense to them was their own humanity.

We’re no different.

Actually, that’s Moses’ point to the people of the new generation.  That’s the default setting for the human being: “I want to do it my way because that’s what makes sense to me.”  Left unchecked, we all revert back to that point.  But Moses wants this new generation to know that truth.  He wants them to cast aside that identity and pick up a new identity instead.  He wants them to choose God and God’s ways.  He wants them to think through God’s ways rather than through the ways of humanity.  He wants them to succeed in relationship with the Father rather than fail where so many people have failed before them.

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