#354 Hiding in a Clear Glass Bottle

These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;

3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:

4 Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.

6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the Lord your God.

7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:

8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.

9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.

10 Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,

11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:

12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day:

13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;

15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;

17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)

18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

20 The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.

21 And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:

22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lordhath laid upon it;

23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?

25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:

26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:

27 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:

28 And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29 KJV

I am not Christian because my parents are and every generation here must be reminded of the covenant anew, even the stranger that has come to live as the adopted of Abraham's seed. These are the children whose parents would not enter the Promised land, yet they saw what God did in Egypt and all this way. They saw but apparently didn't see; they heard but didn't quite understand. Religion is so much easier than this when the object is a piece of wood, the invention of the mind that relishes sacred traditions, the motions of which are as good as godliness and thoughts run ever so deep. Moses here recognizes that the ability to perceive God comes from God. The understanding of the law that moves beneath the skin is grace, so who could ever find this and does this not give man the right to be angry with God? No, you only have the right to what you are owed, and only a fool would want to exercise such a right with a righteous and just God. It says, if my people who are called by name will humble themselves and pray, I will hear their prayers and heal their land. It says in scripture, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. It says, you have not because you ask not, and guess what, when we do finally ask God for something, we ask for things that are fading. Don't you see, we are asking the God of the universe, the Creator, to audition for a part, to interview for a position. We are that silly; he is extending grace and holding back wrath. We should ask for wisdom because it says, that He will give this to all quite liberally. We should beg for sincerity, that we not be drunk on our own words or ideals, telling ourselves that we are blessed when we are cursed. A drunk will return everyday to the same folly of the bottle and call it peace as everything is closing down around him, even his ability to feel or comprehend will be numb. The fool here claims God, but worships others; there are so many so concerned about their liberty that they worship it more than God; they talk more of their ability to do, of moderation that they don't comprehend and without integrity or reservation they call their neighbor to participate. Proud are you? When you heard of Sodom and Gomorrah, you should have said, what brought them here? Why am I not here? What, dear God, have you to teach me? Help me understand. Spare me, don't let me be ordinary. Don't let my children live without bringing glory and honor to your name. Save us. Let us not neglect what you have revealed to us.  

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

² But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

³ And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

⁴ The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

⁵ Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Psalm 1 KJV