I’ll probably spend many moons on this section of this book 📖 in individual notes 📝 📋 like I had been with all the others so far in this blog of my Bible notes 📝 📋 but that’s OK 😁😁😁 for if I’m silent concerning God’s goodness through any of this, the very rocks may cry out, just as Jesus had said of the people worshipping Him in Luke 19:40. This section of Deuteronomy is found in pages 107-121 of the NKJV Bible I have for this four-translation project, pages 136-156 of the NASB Bible (Old Testament) pages 214-247 of my VOICE copy, and pages 218-249 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.
I don’t know too much on this book, to be honest, and if you’re reading this and expecting professional commentary, you’ll be sorely mistaken 😅😅😅😂😂😂 I’m legit sorry in advance 😄😅🤣 but God was indeed updating the law of Moses for the generation that was young in the wilderness (see Numbers 14:24 for their ages back then). I would find it interesting to find out whom either I or my cousins and some of their kids came from, though. I just read 1 Chronicles 23 in the HCSB and hypothesized that at least one of them could be descended of Moses or Aaron or even Korah (like in Psalms 42-49). Even my one cousin from Prescott, his baby could be descended from any of these three Levites, but I just discovered from 1 Chronicles 23:12-13 and Numbers 16:1 that Moses and Korah were cousins, so they’re related 😅😅 apparently Moses related to people he didn’t relate to. But throughout this section, Moses addresses the Israelites’ sins several times, but the reference I notice first every time I read this is in chapter 9, with verse 24 saying, “You have been rebellious against the Lord God from the day I knew you.” And I wonder if the community had flushed out Moses’ perception of God’s goodness? Indeed, I remember in Numbers 11:29, he had wished almost 40 years previously that all of God’s people were prophets, that He’d put His Spirit on them. But about 20 chapters later, after Moses had fairly recently committed error at Meribah (read Numbers 20:10-13), he threw a fit about not pulling off anymore killings! I don’t think Jesus enjoyed that… and I’m actually thinking dealing with people at my workplace is aggravating enough most of the time that I’m legit finding it difficult to believe I should mention God’s love and goodness to anyone, period! It’s good I’m not scheduled much this week… even if I got more hours, it won’t matter, for I need to use my savings to pay rent this time, but thankfully, I can put some of my checking balance in there to rack up interest higher and higher if it means I can pay off my debts a bit faster… but those guys are willing to drag on my loan payments for ages and ages. I don’t think I can get them paid off unless I were working a second job with better pay. I’d rather have it be supplemental, though — unions are required to make it work for me, and Fry’s is unionised, but retail sucks. I don’t want to have experience only in this field. However, unions aren’t common in the U.S., and they’ll be able to ban them at anytime, Trump or no Trump. I do feel good playing Christian worship songs with a guitar or any instrument, though. So if I’m criminalised or executed, I’d rather have it be because I did what God had said, for He never does any wrongdoing 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝 I can’t do well behind bars, though. Yet good things shouldn’t be criminalised in the first place, for Isaiah 10:1-2 forbids this. Even with what Moses spelled out here, God says several centuries later to Ezekiel that this wasn’t good (Ezekiel 20:25). Anyone who says this only refers to what the people added to the Mosaic Law has challenged the Lord Jesusand His reign over the universe. For if Paul hadn’t written what’s now in Romans 7:7-13, there’d be no reason to see that any commandment actually multiplies sin to the extreme, and John later writes in 1 John 4:10 that we hadn’t loved God first, and I don’t see anyone referencing that unless they’re knowingly unreasonable. Such enemies of the Lord are worse than ISIS.
As I was writing that last sentence, I just got an alert ⚠️ in my phone 📱 📲 ☎️ 📞 📳 about a dust storm barreling through my area, so I’m glad I didn’t get Too Good To Go this time (I did that yesterday). I rest my case.
The iconoclastic definition is not creating an image of what we worship, and God encouraged that profusely through Moses that night at the Jordan River opposite Suph (I don’t know where that place was, exactly, but that’s OK). This passage is found in pages 105-106 of the NKJV Bible I have for this four-translation project, pages 135-136 of the NASB Bible (Old Testament), pages 212-214 of my VOICE copy, and pages 216-218 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.
Of course, the Muslims claim they’re iconoclastic, but they have a crescent moon image everywhere they are, and that strange religion came out of a “Christian” heresy, apparently, in 622 A.D. or earlier. I pray repentance and hope for many of them in the Arab nations, the U.S., and Europe 🇪🇺 and the Arab nations used to have a lot of faithful followers of Jesus long, long ago, but the Islamic stuff colonised all these places and most of God’s Church was destroyed. Since then, there hasn’t been any momentum in these places to rid them of the Islamic stronghold the devil had established. It really sucks, since that’s what happened to Iraq when ISIS terrorised Mosul, a city that used to have a lot of faithful Christian disciples but was later bereaved of godliness 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 and they did that by killing and driving away all the Christians there… that’s just one example of this insanity. And Al-Qaeda kicked THEM out because of their obscene behaviour! (Al-Qaeda had been a deadly terrorist organisation that Osama Bin Laden had probably started.) But I don’t believe in killing them… if we did that to anyone, even if they were causing harm, intentionally or otherwise, we’d be no better than they are, and God may not be forgiving. Indeed, Paul used to kill Christians left and right (Acts 8:3), and he took his campaign to Damascus to obliterate every last one of the Lord’s disciples, but then he met Him, became blind for three days, and became Christian (Acts 9:1-18). I guess Paul didn’t know Jesus was truth 😅🤷🏼♂️ such is the case for most of the Muslims, ISIS-based or otherwise. And ISIS had been disbanded in 2017, too, but sadly, we’re dealing with Islamified Christianity, now 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮 this mixing of an alien idea with the Holy One is ridiculous, and Jesus will defeat these heretics, for they think violence is the only way to progress God’s kingdom! Shouldn’t they let Him judge His enemies in His own time? But sadly, they don’t believe God is able to keep anyone safe… so they become His enemies, too. Besides, many criminals had been abused as children and have made poor life choices due to their brains being scrambled by their families like how we can scramble some eggs 🥚 for breakfast every morning. I almost never get them, though, for when I was homeless a second time ten or so years ago, they served them every morning for months when I was at a homeless shelter each time I couldn’t find a place to go, and since then, I’ve lost my liking for them, I guess 🤷🏼♂️ I know how to scramble some eggs now, but it took me years to remember how to do that, even after I moved to Gilbert. I’m still not that much of a cook, and I don’t expect my food to taste good for others. But I pray repentance for someone who wants what I have and tries to kill me for it, for God loves that human, too. I’d rather live in a nation where neither violence nor unforgiveness is common, though…
A key verse is Deuteronomy 4:24, where God is spoken of as an all-consuming fire (see 9:3 and Hebrews 12:29), and the truth about Him being jealous for His people is loosely mentioned in Joshua 24:19 and 1 Corinthians 10:22. I sometimes wonder if this is mentioned in any church, though. Again, the fact that He didn’t command idol worship is too often ignored in all the communities here, and indeed, Israel was supposed to be the world’s greatest nation, but Canaan had a very strong influence on Egypt, and idol worship more or less resumed even during the Exodus. Eventually, it overtook the Israelites, and one king even brought idols into the Temple Solomon had built! The monarchy wasn’t what God wanted anyway, but offence created that, too. After all this, and Israel was split in two, both nations were conquered by neighbouring empires, and that caused them all to think very long and hard about the whole thing. Only then were they cured of these idol infestations. But it’s not as though God rejects idol worshipers if they haven’t heard the Gospel yet (and there are a lot of them), so I pray we can preach the good news of Jesus I mentioned in the previous post (and in many others in this site), just as Paul had said in Romans 10:15: “How will anyone preach if they hadn’t been sent there?” (That’s in my own words, I guess.)
The final three verses of this passage (41-43) are about three cities of refuge Moses had established for the tribes living east of the Jordan, inspiring nations like the U.S. to create sanctuary cities for the refugees fleeing violence. I love that they’ve done this in many parts of the world so far, but man, rehabilitating a refugee is very hard work, for their spirits are broken due to their homeland being crushed to pieces by godless men loading it over their people… and the U.S. was once partly interested, at least, in doing the right thing, but now, there’s almost no potential for change even with the most receptive audience here. Still, it’s worth it to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the least of mankind, and He will reward or punish us according to what we’ve done for them, whether we’ve accepted Him or rejected Him, respectively. I played a sermon from Hillsong U.K. last night concerning the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (spoiler alert: Lazarus was a common name in Jesus’ time). But before I go, I want to clear a misconception: I don’t believe death should be the way out of a tight situation or any fix for things, and I believe life on this earth is a blessing if we can make it count for God’s kingdom, in case someone twists my words in the last post I wrote and wants to drag me to another mental hospital 😬😬😬😬😬😬😬 yet this world cannot satisfy us, and Jesus is coming back in the future to reign on it and eventually replace it. Literally. I don’t understand why someone would make accusatory humour, though; it shouldn’t be encouraged. Indeed, it isn’t right… but I’ll see you in the next section of Deuteronomy (4:44-30:20)! Pray I don’t develop a closed heart to Jesus, though 😅😅
I remember hearing angry people parade themselves every day when I was younger, and today, I can’t avoid them even when I’m off work 😓😓😓😓😓 I believe most of them took inspiration from Moses and the devil, thinking God delights in hateful people. That’s why God blocked Moses and Aaron from Canaan. This passage is found in page 105 of the NKJV Bible I have for this four-translation project, pags 134-135 of the NASB Bible (Old Testament), pages 211-212 of my VOICE copy, and page 216 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.
I’ve never felt safe around anyone who behaved like what the title for this note 📝 📋 suggests, and for years, I questioned if I was responsible for any of that 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I don’t find it fair that anyone would mention only severity, as if it were a forgotten truth. But sadly, this truth is so often remembered that God’s grace and truth in other similar choices He makes is actually hated by His own “church” — it’s not as though they’re in contradiction, though. I think Romans 11:22 explains it, but God’s goodness is for everyone, and He is kind to even His enemies, just as Jesus had said in Luke 6:35. Too bad all of them hate everyone except each other, to their knowledge, and when they find they believe the same things, they join forces, hoping to trample underfoot the lovers of humans and the needy ones from among mankind. When their operations are successful, the devil rejoices, and God’s kingdom suffers. Eventually, it may be mowed down into oblivion 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 and this happens too often at work. Indeed, this is why I need professional help, and even with five months of it and counting (for some reason, they scheduled me during an appointment I have on Tuesday), I don’t think it’s safe for me to be around others here most of the time… I wish safety had been practised more often, but I guess the world needs godless men who pretend to follow Jesus and strip random people naked and shave their nuts and post it online! 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮 Many of their mechanisms are illegal, and even if some aren’t, it’s against the Word of the Lord. What they did in 2016 to remove safety from those who would be born later, like all my nieces, is unforgivable. The U.S. has been declining in happiness every year since, and the lack of safety that had already existed in abundance back then has grown from bad to worse. And the “Christians” think all that’s of God! They’ll never learn.
And you may be asking me, “What does all this have to do with this passage?” Well, the thing is, Moses had been the one to inspire great wickedness this time, for he and Aaron had erred at the tail end of the wilderness journey (Numbers 20:10-11). God then told them not even they could enter Canaan due to this (Numbers 20:12). Maybe he wasn’t getting at this, but the older we get, the more powerful our actions are for the generations to follow, given Jesus’ words in Luke 12:48. And since I’m already 35, I’ve actually thought it good for me to die young if it’s not my fault this happens, for most people at least 50 years old hate everyone even in the “safest” countries 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 like the Netherlands 🇳🇱 Costa Rica 🇨🇷 New Zealand 🇳🇿 Finland 🇫🇮 Fiji 🇫🇯 and even Iceland 🇮🇸 and that’s too easy to fall into, faith or no faith. Why grow old? Indeed, I’m afraid to make any decision that may ruin someone’s life. Moses didn’t seem to care much concerning this, as evidenced by what he said in Numbers 31-32, claiming it’s not good for those who didn’t participate in a cardinal sin to live. He should’ve preached that a Messiah would come and they could look forward to Him. But again, he and Aaron had erred in the tail end of the wilderness journey, and Aaron died soon after that. Moses had angered God by the burning bush (Exodus 4:13) so He chose Aaron to be his mouthpiece (Exodus 4:14). However, Aaron turned out to be a very poor leader, as evidenced by what he’d pull off in Exodus 32 by request of the Israelites when Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. And I don’t think I’m any better…
I remember also one day, after hearing my mom yap about a dog barking at her where she lives the night before, I blurted out some pretty loud expletives concerning her, and I think I made babies cry from that 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I actually feared I had broken Proverbs 20:20 that morning. This was over two years ago, after I went to another recital that two of my nieces were in 💖💖💖💖💖💝💝💝💝💝 but I must be stupid to believe any family member who’s been alive longer than I’ve been is safe… there’s not enough evidence to convict those who’ve intentionally broken good laws to profit off my misery. They’re too good at living off the system. But God doesn’t play their selfish game. I do love how a few days ago, I discovered one of my cousins had brought his daughter into the world last June 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💓💞💕 even if I never meet her, I pray mercy for her and her second cousins, like those my one cousin who’s now in his late 40s had fathered — both are now college-age, and I pray God helps them discover Him if they haven’t yet 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 I pray love, hope, and grace for my four nieces, too, and any other siblings they may have 🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🤎🖤🩶🤍 I still haven’t met two of their second cousins that their dads had brought into the world, although I met one about 20 years ago during a family reunion 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 I was 15, so I didn’t think it would be any good, but I didn’t know I would have a new family member 😁😁😁😁😁 I’ve seen pictures of her and her sister on Facebook over the years after that, but that wasn’t too often… I am glad my one cousin I visited a year and a half ago in Prescott during a snowstorm 🌨❄️☃️⛄️ now has a baby girl; it’s his first kid. I pray God can keep her safe from the unforgiving people we’re stuck with 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 I’m not sure I’ll ever meet anymore family members, though, even if I do go to Tucson to visit my mom’s in-laws every Christmas… my nieces can’t do that every year, for their parents are no longer together as of about a few years ago, but I pray God helps me be like who they believe me to be: safe, faithful, and trusting, among other things. I know I didn’t think family members could be dangerous when I was younger, and for a long time. I still find it difficult to believe my mom’s isolationism isn’t my fault…
The other related passage to this is Psalm 106:32-33, where the psalmist sings that the new generation had also offended God in some level when they were needing water 💧 so that Moses would bark at them — some translations say Moses’ spirit became bitter, but some say that they were rebellious against God’s Spirit, so that he’d speak rashly with his lips. I guess Aaron’s influence in his life had made it so that he’d more or less be unwilling to make alliances with good people 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 did Moses enjoy being angry? We don’t know… he once wanted ALL the Lord’s people to be prophets, that He’d put His Spirit on them (Numbers 11:29). Eventually, he’d more or less get his wish when God’s Spirit was poured out from on high, like in Acts 2:1-4. This has happened quite a bit in the early church days 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 I can’t tell what Moses was thinking when he said everything in this book, Deuteronomy, giving all the necessary instructions his hearers had wanted to hear even when they were young, being used to life in Egypt 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩 thankfully, though, the Law of Moses isn’t necessary for salvation, for Jesus earned it for all of us by living a perfect life then taking the cross for all our sins 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🤎🖤🩶🤍 for we can’t save ourselves. I know. I’ve tried years ago. And that wasn’t even with the Bible! And no, I don’t think Moses wanted to say that something needed to be added to Jesus and His sacrifice for all mankind, but people elevate Moses to a position of worship all the time in too many circles. It seems just about every church in the U.S. does this, and Two Rivers is no exception — for over a year, now, I’ve believed I couldn’t rely on my pastor’s words that much anymore, just as I hadn’t believed about half of what he’d said for a few years or so by that time. And now, I’m having the same approach with my young adult pastor, whose Awaken group I used to attend many moons ago (I had to leave after leap day 2024, for I was 33 and could make the high school girls nervous even though they were 18 and could go to Awaken, now, but I hadn’t taken any of that into account, so I’m sorry…) — in early 2021, I once believed God was having me step away from Awaken, but little did I know I’d discover secrets about someone who played a key role in my walk with Jesus up to that point… the latter days of the pandemic almost killed me. I’d mention what happened, but I don’t want to embarrass anyone, so if you want to know what had happened, I’ll have to discuss it with you privately, like an email 📧 for instance. Of course, they published an article about some of this, but I wasn’t involved in any of that, for I had already moved a lot closer to the church and had to keep a low profile. Boy, do I miss Gilbert… but it doesn’t matter, now, because they criminalised homelessness in every single sliver of the country, knowingly put Trump back in power with full awareness of what he’s like, and destroyed the vulnerable in too many foreign lands. God will never forgive them.
I realise I made a very long post about many life events and didn’t talk much about Moses’ errors affecting Israel a lot, but I do wish I could escape the madness of the atheists who love nothing but offence and shaming even Jesus Himself for standing for the vulnerable, instead using Him as a needless mascot for the rich and powerful… it would be good indeed if they hadn’t been born! It’s too bad I have a ton of college debt, though, but when I see an ad for people in danger, I usually pray they can get the help from God they deserve ❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 I just hope we can be Jesus’ hands and feet for them more often. Unfortunately, though, the poor will always be among us (see Deuteronomy 15:11, Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, and John 12:8) 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 I know; I have experience with advanced levels of poverty in the U.S. I’m glad God rescued me from that in May 2017, but I’ll always remember being homeless and destitute more than once. Indeed, at one point, I actually contracted pneumonia 😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 and I may get it again in less than three months. So I PRAY I don’t get it a third time (apparently, I once had it when I was 15 — it’s been about 20 years since then… but I was sick with bronchitis that season, too, so that’s no fun). But it’s nice that Isaiah 33:17-24 has a passage of a better world, with the last verse there saying, “And no resident will say, ‘I am sick,’ for the people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity” (author’s translation).
I hope you enjoyed this post; I’ll be back sooner or later with Deuteronomy 4:1-43! In the meantime, enjoy these screenshots I got from Google Maps concerning a lovely private island from Bora Bora.
I realise I uploaded over 20 screenshots lol 😆 😅 😂 🤣 call me #obsessed 😅😅 this song 🎵 also helps me get in the mood for a vacation like this 🏝🏖😇😇😇😇😇 I need to go there 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩 I think Heaven’s filled with gorgeous places like this, though 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 I can’t wait to get there without experiencing death, if possible. Again, Jesus is the only One who can make it happen, so if you receive Him today, you’ll be able to live for Him now and enter into Paradise when finished, per His sovereignty (I don’t bring that up much, but only because the devil’s children had hijacked that, too). And yes, all LGBT+ people are invited, for God’s love and grace is for everyone 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💓💞💕💟❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥 again, I’ll be back with Deuteronomy 4:1-43 later this week, God-willing.
I don’t have much to say here, so I’ll make it quick: Moses reviews the victories after Aaron died (see Numbers 20:24-21:35) and he adds some details (or someone else does; I don’t know who posthumously wrote what’s in this book during Moses’ speech) about these things. But this passage is found in pages 104-105 of the NKJV Bible I have for this four-translation project, page 134 of the NASB Bible (Old Testament), pages 210-211 of my VOICE copy, and pages 215-216 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.
I was reading 1 Chronicles 18 of the HCSB a little while ago today and noticed it was simply another perspective of 2 Samuel 8, at least according to the commentator. Both chapters talk of David’s victories, just as this passage talks of Moses and Israel succeeding against some of the Canaanites, but hopefully there were those in each people group who became a lover of Jesus before they died, looking forward to Him long before Israel were to cross the Jordan. That’s how the people in the Old Testament got saved, including among the Ninevites in Jonah 3 after the prophet went to Assyria to preach destruction to it albeit unwilling to do so — he believed he’d be wasting his time there, instead hoping that God would save them, contrary to popular opinion.
I don’t think I talk enough about any of my victories in this life, however, since I’m only 35 and still haven’t been able to gain much footing in the world, even with God’s help in many things. For although I went to ASU for five years, I couldn’t do much due to me being forced into a bad commute most of the time. Also, some people claimed they were more free than everyone else, and because of that, my mental health and studies eventually fell through the cracks. Not many others were willing to help, either, and I didn’t know insurance was necessary to get counseling on campus, nor could I actually find anything that would help with my budget — too many impose on you, and that’s not fair. I even said one day a few years ago, “How is the U.S. free?” (For freedom of speech was under attack, mostly by the MAGA people who claimed Jesus was being persecuted because some of them were being held accountable, and now, everything good is at risk with no guarantee of victory in anything. And even if at least 50 of them were defeated by God today, they can use AI to immortalise atheism pretending to be Christianity.) Nowadays, I sometimes seek a therapist from the clinic I go to, and I wonder if I were able to do well in life if I had it then… I guess I needed a break. Too bad I was stuck at my mom’s place most of the time, though. No one can grow if a Nazi is breathing down your neck, hoping to break your spirit. And when good things do happen, they’re soon reversed by these same Nazis, hoping to disguise themselves enough so you don’t even know who they are. I’m tired of all this… I even wonder if a bunch of counselors are like that themselves… and I can’t always read someone’s heart even a little well like Jesus can.
I’d eventually find that Dobson had infested the entire nation (and many other places) with his hateful teachings and called them Christian, but it wasn’t until after he died this time last year I’d actually have an idea of what he was like. That guy’s in Hell, now, and all his remaining supporters will be there with him one day. But they will use AI to keep it alive. So in other words, they’ll always be alive, and even the most peaceful people will be driven completely insane because of them. They’ve been at work at this since 1970 in response to the Woodstock thing and the Grateful Dead music. Other satanic movements would spring up, too, most of which claiming to be Christian.
I’d like to finish this post with a very special moment of foreshadowing. I’ll mention the truth that Moses had mentioned all this so that he’d then bring up that he cannot enter the promised land because he had become faithless in loving his neighbours (see Leviticus 19:18 for this commandment), and the next post that brings this up I’ll explain in detail.
It’s utterly wild to think that entire populations were defeated (a note 📝 📋 in this chapter that the VOICE editorial staff had written talks about this), but we need to remember that God never wanted death for anyone (Ezekiel 18:32, 33:11) and that this was a result of perpetual dishonour against Him so that this would happen… I hate talking about this because passages like this can make atheists out of everyone, and killing someone in God’s Name is never OK. Maybe it was God’s conflict… I don’t know all the details, and indeed, Moses wanted tons of blessings for Israel in Deuteronomy 1:11. The VOICE translation puts it in wish form, and I’m not sure what the translators were thinking concerning other versions. But there’s some history with Edom’s and Moab’s actions concerning their neighbours in Deuteronomy 2:11-12 concerning the giants outside Canaan (verse 10). I hope there’s mutual love and understanding between you and me, since I don’t want to make it so that war is what God had ever been interested in (see ancient Israel’s confession in Psalm 20:7). But I think it’s weird that many people promise peace but are all bark and no bite. This chapter is found in page 104 of the NKJV Bible I have for this four-translation project, pages 133-134 of the NASB Bible (Old Testament) pages 209-210 of my VOICE copy, and pages 213-215 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.
It’s worth it to talk about any Bible passage, but remember always that what God commands for one season He doesn’t command in other seasons. I know, for my part, that I’ve been watching Mario videos a whole lot more often since I went back to my mom’s place after I left the mental hospital (they had forced me out of the Tempe apartment I was living in because they had kept me there too long and I couldn’t find work), and I’ve been doing this for 12 years, sometimes playing a game from the series on hi-tech Nintendo consoles. I even played Mario Kart 64 and completed it 100% on my N64 library on the Nintendo Switch one season a year and a half ago at Richard’s place when I lived with him. I’ve thought it would be good to entertain myself in lovely games like that, and with all the old-school classics like Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and in 2021-2022, I played Super Mario 64 in Super Mario 3D All-Stars (I still have a copy of the game several years later). I even played Super Mario Sunshine in that same game, too, though I haven’t finished it yet; it’s just really hard (there was simply too much rushed development and the game’s glitchy enough for A+Start to do a video 📹 on over 50 massive glitches there, not to mention many players probably gave up halfway through). I’ve also played Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii (that game’s also on 3D All-Stars, but I haven’t played that version yet) and finished it several times. Truly a good idea from Nintendo. However, I don’t think I should substitute that for godliness, and even if any of the main protagonists are Christian, it’s not as though Japan 🇯🇵 actually has a bunch of Christians, is it? (Fewer than 1% of the Japanese people love Jesus.) The good news is, though, getting a missionary visa, I heard, is more accepting there than in most other countries. I’m heavily foggy on the details; I don’t really know the mechanisms there. Whatever the case, I pray for hope in Japan 🇯🇵 🙏🏼 🛐
I don’t want to talk about any battles this chapter illustrates, and I want to skip ahead to many of the psalms like no. 46 which reverses the possibility of nuclear war, since it can and probably will destroy the world and all civilisations. The 24 elders said in Revelation 11:18 that God will destroy those who destroy the earth, and it doesn’t have to be cataclysmic in how they do this, for it can be as simple as wiping out an entire species of ants 🐜 or ladybugs 🐞 or worst of all, devouring entire dog 🐶🐕🦮🐕🦺🐩 breeds. My apologies for scaring and/or disturbing you… I don’t want for any puppy to perish 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 I heard about this one guy in Mexico who snuck out to feed a stray dog and her puppies, and he rescued them, and eventually, all the dogs, when they were old enough, were adopted! I pray for love for the doggies and their humans… you can click here for the video. But any species being eliminated is awful, and even for plants 🪴 if no one restores them, or if a forest is wiped out, it’ll be hard for us to breathe, and God will be offended with those doing this. Indeed, for any plant 🪴 species being eliminated, there will be a total reckoning for those who do that, and poachers deserve to go to Hell, too, for they think they can hunt for rhinos 🦏 and elephants 🐘 ‼️ I do think it’s good to eat sausage and beef, though. I don’t know much about farming, but we should give our livestock good lives before turning them into food (but don’t do that too soon 😅😅 it would suck if someone abuses them). Of course, God spells out what His people could and couldn’t eat in their land, which, if He wills, I’ll cover later. But for now, I’ll need to finish this post pronto, for I have food waiting for me at California Fish Grill, yea, that which I had ordered this morning. Read the intro to Deuteronomy for the app where I got that from. There’s only a 30-minute windows for me to get it, and it starts in about 15 minutes, so I’ll see you in the next one!
No generation goes bad overnight, and corruption always starts from the top of the food chain and works its way down, so that’s why God has said over and over again we’re here to learn from others when we’re young. But too many at least as old as I am are willing to blame an obscure relative as young as two years old or even their twin brother or sister just for existing! Moses doesn’t blame the younger generation here, and he says in chapter 24 that no one needs to die or suffer for their parents’ or children’s sins (verse 16). But even then, forgiveness is never offered, even in trivial matters. This chapter is found in pages 103-104 of the NKJV Bible I have for this four-translation project, pages 132-133 of the NASB Bible (Old Testament), pages 207-209 of my VOICE copy, and pages 211-213 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.
I realise I sound like a broken record at this point, but it’s not fair that the U.S. was willing to do the right thing and soon renounced righteousness for the sake of getting more and more people here rich and secure in matters they didn’t deserve safety in… I guess loving one’s neighbour is too much to ask of the people here, even with Jesus’ help and God’s grace available to make it happen… so, He’s decided to leave them behind. And when the chief opponents of the Lord Jesus who claim to worship Him pass away, it’ll actually be a beacon of hope for some of us, but they’ve already made it so that the world’s in a permanent decline and no one can reverse its destruction. The good news is, though, good times are still possible, but they may not be that frequent. Besides, division and discord aren’t what Jesus had in mind. And believe it or not, Moses didn’t want division in the people’s lives, either, but he didn’t follow God very faithfully — he needed to remember that he wasn’t the only one who was righteous. I don’t know why he said God was angry with him in verse 37… but I don’t want anyone harping on this. That’s not what He had planned. But since God never enjoyed being angry in the Old Testament days, we can still say His goodness exists… yet the people who falsely worship Him here love anger and hating everyone else that doesn’t think like them, look like them, walk like them, talk like them, or act like them. I can’t go to a church in this country as a result due to this — I’d rather not even be alive if the Lord wills and if He wants me to see Him, and I don’t want to be around the falsehood-lovers of other countries, either. Even North Korea doesn’t have that many per capita, I think… at least the Body of Christ is more authentic there. Yet it’s an awful place to be where Kim Jong-Un’s grip on the people is only getting tighter and tighter as the years go by. But they can’t hide the truth forever — one guy from 60 Minutes Australia reported this. And I’m from Arizona, and I can see that YouTube video 📹 and share it here.
Moses’ words that he spoke by the Jordan River (verse 1), about ten months after Miriam had died (Numbers 20:1), I don’t really need to repeat here, for I’ve already spent the last few notes (including this one) doing that. But it was the best they could come up with in those days, and so was the U.S. breaking up with Britain 🇬🇧 250 years ago last month. But from the beginning, freedom of concept was always legal in the kingdom of God, just as Jesus had said that from the beginning, divorce wasn’t a thing (Matthew 19:8). It may have been hard to remember for a long time, but the U.S. basically reintroduced it to the world. However, many people have been like Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26 and became false to God in their strength. Pride always comes before destruction (Proverbs 16:18), and I don’t want anymore unnecessary hardship because someone is willing to claim that people with autism can’t have a good ending in life! And the scary thing is, no one usually notices the power trip these proud men have immediately. I guess that’s why discrimination should be illegal in every case. I don’t have anything against freedom of speech. I find it weird enough most nations (including this one) can legally deny the Holocaust. But empowering shepherds of this generation to become traffickers? All I can really do is shake my head, shrug my shoulders, and oh, my God, they’re trying to legalise sexual abuse against children, too?! Nah, I’m out. Don’t want me in the U.S.? Don’t worry, if I can manage it, I’m never showing up in this nation again! For real, though, the countryside where the forests in high elevation are — those places I’ve always loved, and I want to see them again, but this is the darkest era in the nation’s history, and my body can’t handle it. And with mid-term elections being exalted here so that MAGA buttholes will have a guaranteed win in just a few months, this may be just the tip of the iceberg.
I hope I can return for chapter 2, and I pray I can be at peace when I work tomorrow. It’ll be three days in a row, then I’m off again, and the pattern repeats itself for the rest of the week, so I don’t know how far I’ll go by the end of the 22nd. Regardless, I hope you can be encouraged by the Lord Jesus (save for what I wrote on here haha).
The name for this book comes from an inexact rendering of the Greek version in 17:16, which says in English, “this is the repetition of the law,” and here, Moses starts his long sermon to all the people (I should add that Eugene Peterson, late author of The Message version of the Scriptures, had written that Deuteronomy is adulthood, in contrast to all the preceding books). The law isn’t really introduced until 4:44, but Moses reviews his history with Israel here. This section of the book is found in pages 103-106 of the NKJV Bible I have for this four-translation project, pages 132-136 of the NASB Bible (Old Testament), pages 207-214 of my VOICE copy (I should add that the intro was in page 206 there), and pages 211-218 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.
Moses reviews the 40-year wilderness journey with his people, the victories they had after they left and Aaron died, and he even mentions he himself is also forbidden to enter Canaan, not to mention the cities of refuge in 4:41-43. But when he reviews Israel’s refusal to enter Canaan, I don’t think there was any good news there — I don’t know why he reviewed this twice, both in chapters 1 and 9… it’s too bad severity was the only thing that came about from this in the end… Jesus never wanted it that way. But when we see Moses’ insensitivity to others he had developed in Numbers 31, it would make sense to say that the American churches have decided to follow the laws because they were afraid Jesus was a communist 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 they’ve attacked peaceful people in several different places out of this. And the people still refuse to see the truth… they learned from China 🇨🇳 which had become communist because the opposing parties had done lots of bad things, but not from Germany 🇩🇪 just years before. They’ve since moved away from that big time, but the U.S. was the inspiration for the Nazis’ work, and THEY called IT too extreme! We really got the raw end of the deal here…
I don’t think I got it exact when it came to dividing later sections of this book, for I’m not that good at categorising things haha 😅😅 but I pray we can love Jesus out of this… for at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if we see Him clearly, but it’s that He sees everything perfectly, and so will we one day if we love Him now (1 John 3:2). And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies Himself as He is pure (1 John 3:3). I’m not sure how I can possibly do that, though. I ask God for His help…
And so here we are on Moses’ fifth and final book, ending the Pentateuch. After this will come 12 historical books, most of which being quite long, with several having been divided in two parts each, for they were too cumbersome for the people to carry. But I’m getting ahead of myself 😅😅 but this book is also a long one like all the others in the Pentateuch, and I’m looking forward to spelling out the love of Jesus here as best as I can.
Two things before I start: I’ve read several parts of the book in the VOICE translation already, and if we’re honest, I don’t think it’s good they did that with Moses’ last words, making it all demagogue-y. This isn’t the heart of God. Also, I’m still reading this in the above translation with the NKJV, NASB, and the first Amplified version, but I may want to use language from other translations that helped us understand the Bible better now than we did when I was 21 in August 2012 when I wrote Bible notes on sticky notes for the very first time. Most Bible versions are harder for me to understand in a foreign language, so it’ll help if I can see the truth in both methods. For about 27 of the chapters in this book are updating the law for the second generation that arose from the Exodus, after all their ancestors besides Caleb and Joshua had perished for their unfaithfulness (Numbers 14:22-24) in the previous 40 years up to that point. Also, not every Bible verse in the Old Testament was written in Hebrew; the other language for some of them was Aramaic, a language that sadly is no longer spoken, but one verse in that language is Jeremiah 10:11. It is nice that we don’t need the law of Moses to follow Jesus — Acts 15 and the book of Galatians explain why. Too bad many “disciples” claim that Jesus was for it though… justice is indeed necessary for this life, but God knew no one could save themselves… I know I couldn’t. And though there’s no direct reference to a new covenant in this book, Jeremiah 31:31-34 is complimentary to this, and as a result, the Israelites and others who wanted something better than what they were born into would be able to seek Jesus, just as Amos 9:11-12 says also (quoted in Acts 15:16-17).
Well, I need to get started… I have a surprise food bag I had ordered from a restaurant for a lot cheaper than originally priced that I need to pick up at 3 this afternoon (I have about five hours at the time of writing this to get there, but thankfully, it’s not far from where I live, even on foot). It’s from Too Good To Go, an app that sells unsold food to you in a surprise bag from a restaurant for much cheaper. You can download it from the App Store (if you have an iPhone) or Google Play Store (if you have an Android, like me). And you can choose which restaurant to pick up a surprise food bag from, yea, that which is available. It’s first come, first serve, and there may not be very many items left from these places (perishable food can expire quickly), so grab them before they’re gone! OK, that’s enough rambling from me for now 😅😅 off to chapter 1!
This is the fastest I’ve gone through a book in the Bible so far when it comes to writing all these notes 📝 📋 from every chapter, and I have no regrets in getting through the last 12 or so in the last month. I had plenty of fun writing on the stories that appear in the book to make it more interesting, but I didn’t enjoy the unfaithfulness all the unbelievers exhibited, nor did I enjoy Moses himself actually being stupid and denouncing the good in chapters 31 and 32 when the new generation did what was right. Indeed, who isn’t like this in the school of hard knocks? I think it’s at a point where they can shoot the students who are supposedly misbehaving and not go to jail. For we can’t tamper with anyone’s natural growth patterns. But I guess it’s because God has no grandchildren that the disciplinarians have decided in their depraved and deluded souls to scar and maul the hearts of even the adults who want them safe! 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 My second niece recently started kindergarten, I think, and her older sister is now in the 3rd grade, so I pray God keeps them safe somehow, for I feel like I’m one of the few people ON EARTH who would uplift a younger human’s well-being. For Biff Tannen is the god of the U.S., and I can’t identify with him, but most people more or less follow him like they’d follow Jesus if they were willing to, and with no hindrances. Indeed, that guy is the country’s “Dear Leader”, and there’s no signs of it slowing down. However, the Holy Spirit is stronger than he is, but offence has blocked Him from ever lifting the nation again, just as offence had made it so that God had to make the Israelites wait 40 years until everyone from the first census except Caleb and Joshua was dead. Those under 20 could take the land, but Moses and Aaron couldn’t enter, either. Regardless, Jesus still had a plan for Moses, and we see them talking in the Transfiguration (read Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 9:1-13, and Luke 9:27-36 for the whole story).
This is just one story out of many in how offence this the devil’s secret weapon, and most people in any church, in general, don’t want to talk about it. I don’t really know why… but I guess I can’t get an answer right now… but overall, I think Numbers is a good book. Quite underrated in numerous circles, though. I remember I discovered the stories in 2012 and did notes 📝 📋 on them, some being in a bus 🚌 lol. I didn’t really know much of what I was reading in that section of the Bible when I first picked one up in September 2009, just weeks after I first began following Jesus, but now I think there’s a lot of moments worth mentioning. I don’t really know what I’m up against with Deuteronomy, though… pray for me lol 😆😆😆
I love how Zelophehad’s daughters come to Moses again for what will happen to their land when the Jubilee year (see Leviticus 25) comes and their land is taken from them so that they keep it while they marry in their own clan, but Jesus never cared whom their husbands would’ve looked like, Israeli or otherwise. If all five of them were godly and kind and safe enough for them, that should do it. This chapter is found in page 102 of the NKJV Bible I have for this four-translation project, pages 130-131 of the NASB Bible (Old Testament), pages 204-205 of my VOICE copy, and pages 209-210 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.
The chapter may be short, but it follows up from where chapter 27 left off. Some of it actually has certain things God never wanted, but again, the Israelites wanted dead religion in those days, even from Exodus 15-17, so He gave them up to the dead works that the author of Hebrews talks about (see Hebrews 6:1). And 2 Corinthians 3:14-16 still rings true today, for it’s a New Testament texts, and Jesus lives again forever, for death couldn’t hold Him down (Acts 2:24) and He cannot die again (Romans 6:9), for He is God. Zelophehad was descended from Joseph, and Gilead, Joseph’s great-grandson through Manasseh, was later known for being filled with healing balms (Jeremiah 8:22), for they built a city with the same name as him after they took Canaan, I think. I’m not very knowledgeable of how Joshua allotted the land to the Israelites when the conquest was done. But the wealth was eventually plundered when their descendants followed wickedness like sheep 🐑 and for a long time, they couldn’t get their nation back without occupation of the Gentiles. There’s a lot of Jewish people in many parts of the world as a result. But I pray they recognise Jesus, for He is willing to forgive them, and no generation is responsible for their predecessors’ sins. I know I’m not.
If my nieces never get married, I don’t know how the family line will continue, but that’s OK; we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. But for now, I want all of them to have exciting childhoods and have plenty of joy all their days, even when they’re old and grey, long after I’m gone, but it would be nice if Jesus were to come back and take us home. Until then, I’ll continue writing Bible notes 📝 📋 on here, and I’ll write a retrospective to reflect on this book 📖 like I had done with all the others.
Ron And His Stories 