Deuteronomy 8:19,20
“It shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. “Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.”
Chapter 8 of Deuteronomy is a significant one. It shares of God’s deliverances past and promised blessings in the future. They are very encouraging. To an unbeliever the promised blessing seem too good to be true. Future lands are promised. Prosperity, success, respect and so on.
Today’s passage speaks of the person that chooses not to listen to God. It says that they will perish. Exodus 21:13 speaks of how The Lord gave shade to the jews while they went through the desert. That’s a great analogy for the one who listens to God. Any of them could have not listened and gone a different route. However, they would have chosen to leave the shade of The Lord. They would have been exposed to the Death Valley sun and heat.
When we are obedient to God, He allows us to be exposed to a designed amount of heat. He uses that to mature us. When we disobey, we aren’t sheltered by Him. We’ve left His shade. This has a perishing effect. It’s manifested in anxiety, depression, want, damaged relationships, addictions and so on.
It’s not God causing us to perish. It’s us choosing to leave His shelter. We can’t blame Him for our problems. Romans 2:1 says that we are without excuse.
Lord, thank You for Your blessings. Help us to stay within Your shade by obeying You.