I'd see each one of you here this morning. We're going to be looking in Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7. The other day, I'm not sure when it was, one of the services, Jeremy sang us, let us in a song, Open My Eyes. And I got to. That's a neat song. And A lot of times if we read a song, we sing a song and forget what we've sang. We've got a lot of real good songs that have a lot of meaning to them. And the first verse of Open My Eyes is open my eyes that I might see glimpses of truth thou hast for me. place in my hand the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free." You think about that. That's when I pray. When I read my daily Bible reading, I want my eyes to be open to what I'm reading. I want to see those wonderful glimpses. Because I look at who I am, I'm unworthy to even be doing a Sunday school lesson. Because I feel like how many times I'll make a mistake and mess up, I can't read very well, especially the names that they put in here. But the things that God has showed me has just been unreal. And the closer I get to Him, the more I'm glad I get closer. I like being close to God. Especially when you look around in the world at what they're hunting for and God is giving me, you know, he's unclasped. He saved me, allowed me. He's freed me. The world has got this sin and that's all I want to do is sin. But I want God to open my eyes and to see things in his word. And I looked up on program eyes in the Bible. I come across this one was one of them, Deuteronomy chapter seven. I'm gonna read verse 16. And then we'll go back and start at the beginning of the chapter. And verse 16, thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee, thine eyes shall not have no pity upon them, neither shalt thou serve their gods, for there will be a snare unto you. And also go down and read verse 19. the great temptation which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonderings, and the mighty hand, and the strength, and the stretched out hand, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out, so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid. I take these two verses, and I'm gonna go back to verse one, Moses is writing this to them as an encouragement. And as, because they're fixing, Moses has got, when he finishes writing and preaching, telling them about Deuteronomy, he dies. The Lord takes him out. Then they, Joshua and the children of Israel, go into the land of Canaan. And here he, as you read through here, He's encouraging them. And when I say eyes, you know, he's trying to open their eyes to see what the future is. But here in verse one, And when the Lord thy God shall bring thee unto the land where thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perzites, the Hevites, the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt not make covenants with them, nor show mercy unto them, neither shall thou make marriage with them. Thy daughters thou shalt not give unto their sons, nor their daughters shalt thou take unto thy sons. For they will turn away thy sons from following thee, and they may serve other gods, so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy you suddenly. But thou shalt ye deal with them, ye shall destroy their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire." We're gonna stop right there. But I think the neat thing that Moses writes here in verse one, he says, when the Lord God shall bring thee, the God's bringing them into the land of Canaan, and where thou shalt go to possess it, and hath cast out, hath cast, that's past tense. They haven't done it yet, this is past tense. Many nations before thee, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Pergites, the Hevites, the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thee. He's telling them, future things is gonna happen. You're gonna go out and you're gonna take at least seven nations that are bigger and mightier than you and we're gonna destroy them. You're gonna take them out. And that's what Moses is trying to show them, hey, you're going to take over them. God's going to deliver them into your hand. Yeah, because verse 2, and when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee. Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. He's telling them, this is what you're going to do. This was why in verse 16, he said, don't don't look in their eyes. Don't take pity on them because they have they're not following me. They're wicked. And they need to be destroyed. And. He also, you know, he says, don't don't marry him. don't keep a covenant, don't have mercy on them, you destroy them. And then you go to verse 6. For thou art a holy people unto the Lord God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more than number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, because he would keep an oath which he had sworn unto our fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of Bondman from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." God chose, Moses is trying to open their eyes to see that you're a chosen people. When you say that you are the fewest, when God called Abraham, it was Abraham and Sarah. There was two people. You can't get much smaller than that. And how big were they now when they were leaving and going in? They were a lot of people. I forget how many people that God called out of Egypt. And when they went out of Egypt, Egypt was desolate. You figure all those plagues that were there, they lost all their firstborn when they left that night. I mean, they had nothing. They had nothing, I mean, some of the hail come and tore up the green and then they had the locusts that come in and ate everything that was green. And what was wild was, all those frogs that came, Pharaoh wanted one more night with the frogs. But yet, it doesn't say anything that Israel didn't have a problem with frogs. Their, their, their, all their livestock was protected. God didn't put the, the plagues on them. But, and when they left Egypt, what'd they take? They took everything else that God didn't destroy. They went and said, hey, can I borrow? And they let them borrow everything they had. They wanted them away. They wanted them gone. And this is what Moses is trying to tell them. See what God has done? And you go down to verse nine. Now therefore, that the Lord thy God is, he is God, the God, the faithful God which keepeth covenants and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, and repayeth them that hate him to their face, and destroy them, he will not be slack to him that hateth him, and he will repay him to his face." God says, you keep my commandments. and I'll bless your families for a thousand generations. That's a long time. That's a very long time. But the ones that hate me, I'll take care of them myself to their face. And I know in the New Testament, Jesus tells his disciples, they don't hate you. They hate me. That's why they do what they do to you, trying to get to me. That's what Satan was trying to do in the very beginning to get to man, to destroy man, to get to God. That didn't work. But that's encouragement for us because no matter We need to be the witnesses we need to be, and I'm not a very good one, that if we're witnessing and they, whatever they do to us, they're not doing it directly to us. We get the physical, but they're actually mad at God. They don't want God. And that's like my devotion. He created everything. I mean, I don't know. I'm glad he opened my eyes to him. Because if he hadn't opened my eyes, I don't know where I would have been. I really don't. I doubt if I would have made it to this age and this time. We'll go on to verse 12. Wherefore, it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments and keep and to do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he swore unto thy fathers, and he will love thee and bless thee and multiply thee And he will bless the fruit of thy womb and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, thy wine, thine oil, the increase of thy kin, the flocks of thy sheep in the land which he swore unto his father to give thee. Thou shalt bless above all people. There shall not be male or female barren among you and among thy cattle. And the Lord shall take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee, but will lay upon all them that hate thee." You see, I think it's neat when he said, I'll bless you. There will not be one family that doesn't have kids. All males, females, everybody, you guys will be blessed. Lord will open your wombs and give you children. All your cattle will be prosperous you remember how Joseph forget now Israel was Israel was with his father-in-law and he was keeping his cattle and his cattle was doing better than his father-in-law's cattle God blessed him just like Joseph whenever he was taking care of Pilate first house because he was following what God said. You think of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they followed God where they were, and the Lord blessed them. And I tell you what, you go through and you read all the sacrifices, the daily sacrifices, the holy day sacrifices, that's a lot of sacrificing. And they were all, a lot of them, The lamb that was supposed to be slain, sacrificed a lot of times, was a lamb that was the firstborn. And you figure how many firstborns they had to have. That's lots and lots of sheep, plus all the cattle. I mean, it was unreal. If you really get in and dig that out, there's a lot there. But go on, see where I'm at. Verse 15, and I think it's kind of neat here in verse 15, He'll take away all the sickness. I was thinking as I read that, here I'm coughing and sneezing, thinking about Pat's in the hospital. God's going to take away, He took away sickness. You follow His commandments, God will heal you. He'll take care of you. I just think it's neat the way everything God was going to bless them in taking care of everything. Then verse 16, And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee. Thine eyes shall have no pity upon them, neither shall thou serve their gods. for that will be a snare unto you. When I read that the first, that's the snare that's going to be taken. If you don't, if you have pity on them, they're gods and that's what happened to Israel. They got to follow in those other gods. And I think it's, I look at that and I go, I don't understand why, but it's simple because we have this old sinful body and we'll follow the easiest path. Apollo and God is not something that's easy, unfortunately. We're going down to verse 17. If thou shalt say in thine heart, these nations are more than I, how can I dispose them? Thou shalt not be afraid of them. but shall well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh and unto all Egypt, the great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs and wonderings, and the mighty hand and the stretched out arms whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out, so shall the Lord thy God do to all the people of whom thou art afraid." Here Moses is telling them, you're looking at the nation of Israel, and you're like, how can I do what, or you're looking at Canaan and all these mighty nations, how can we do this? God says, I'll take care of it. Don't you remember how you come out of Egypt? I'll take care of them too. I took care of them, I'll take care of you. And I think it's neat, you look at how the first thing they did, they went into Jericho and the walls fell flat. They didn't fall down, they fell flat and they went straight in and they destroyed that whole nation. I think it's neat, this is why Moses is telling them, look. I didn't get it quite as far as I thought I'd get. But he said, look. Look at what I've done. Look what God has done. And that's what we need to do. What has God done for us and where we are today? He's opened our eyes, not only to salvation. He's blessed us to open our eyes to see what his word has. And we have it right here. You want to be blessed in your family? Follow His commandments. I tell you what, if we follow His commandments, even though our kids may not be where they're supposed to be, God's blessing them because of us. And I think about all the stuff I did way back there that bothers me and I know they're paying for. I sure hope they'll see this. Because this world is coming to an end really quick. You can just look around, you can see all of it. But hopefully this will be encouragement to pray, to open your eyes, let the Lord open your eyes, just like that song says. And hopefully, my plans are to go a little bit further into it, but it may be bigger than I thought. But we'll be dismissed with a word of prayer. Dear Renewed Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the many blessings you've given us. Thank you for allowing us to get to church safe, and Lord, just bless others that are traveling, and Lord, just bless this Word, and Lord, open our eyes that we might see what you have for us. Help us to be encouraged in you, to follow you. Lord, just open the eyes of the lost. Lord, just lay your hand upon the many lost in our families, Lord, just bless them with salvation and bless us that we'll be the witness we need to be to them. Lord, just bless the rest of the services and forgive us of our many sins and our shortcomings. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.