All right, there we go. Father, we thank Thee today for the Word of God. We do ask that we keep us safe, keep us healthy. We do ask that it be a comfort to Mrs. Hawes at this time, and would ask that we give her an opportunity to reflect upon the wonderful marriage and life you've given her with her husband in the past, and that she would be able to find comfort in the Scripture and your We would be honored and glorified at the memorial service. We do ask that you would continue to guide us and encourage us with thy word. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, so we're in chapter 7 today of the book of Deuteronomy. And we have a few questions to go over. So let's Let's read a few verses, Thoreau. I'll do one, you do one. We'll do it two times. We'll cover four verses and talk about it. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest, to possess it, and have cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Yerushites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, I will smite them, and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them thy daughters. Thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. Turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroyed be suddenly your fight. But thus shall you deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their images. and cut down their groves, and burned their graven images with fire. So again, we have here a situation where we have the Deuteronomy. We have the second giving of the law. This is a whole other generation, 40 years after, 40 years previous to this time period, the contemporary timeline. We have the Bible. The Exodus, the departure, God bringing them out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand. Spending over 400 years in that land, through generations of the children of Israel. And now they're coming out. God brings them out by the hand of Moses. Brings them to Sinai, where they receive the law of grace. He sees the 10 plagues, the 10 miracles of God. God brings them out with a mighty hand. These 10 plagues, And so now we have, then we have Sinai, and then we have four years after that time, we have the time of events that are taking place here. That generation that came out of Egypt, they didn't have the faith, even though they saw what God could do, they did not have the faith to believe that God can continue doing what He had been doing for them. So we're having a review for this next generation in 40 years. So some of these people have no idea. They were not alive. Some of them were not alive at the time. We just celebrated the anniversary of the Constitution on the 17th, I guess it was. That was yesterday. We weren't there. Just no one around today was there. but we still would be observing. It means something that's meaningful to this country. It may not be meaningful to somebody in another country, but it's meaningful to the people that live in this country. It should be, at least. It should be, but there are a lot of people it means nothing to them. Right. It's sad. Yeah. It's sad. So there are other events that we celebrate. We just celebrated early, like, Seven days ago, a week ago, we celebrated Patriot Day. Now, some of us relied on Patriot Day. It wasn't called Patriot Day when it happened. but it eventually became known as Patriot Day. There's some people... You've never heard of Patriot Day? It's a memorial day for September 11th. Oh, okay. You know, that's the way they call it. Shortly after it happened, they called it Patriot Day. Is she running behind schedule? I'm not sure. No, it's... It says it's from Elaine, but I think it's from Paul. I think it's from Paul. Hopefully they can tune in. I think it's about class. OK, so that's something else. There are some people today that weren't living then. I don't know either. I'm not sure. Maybe she forgot about it. Maybe you can call her back and say, hey. Two names if you want to. I think it was. OK. It probably was. I think you're right. Sometimes you'll send it by voice. And so what about bringing up those two things, the Constitution Day, Patriot Day? We go through all different significant days on our calendar. But this, Moses is given the account of something that happened about 40 years previously. And he's reiterating the law. And they're this generation. He's about ready to go into the land. Joshua, Moses is not permitted to go into the land. Joshua will be the one that will bring them into the land. Joshua was one of the original two tall spires. The one that actually finished up the book of Deuteronomy? It's hard. Some people say that Moses had died previously. Some people would say that, but then it's possible that God allowed Moses to do it. It was foretelling. Exactly. It could be perfect. There are some people who make the argument, but I don't have any problem having Moses doing it, completely. But we can say about that. That makes sense, because there's so much prophecy in the Bible, and it all comes from God anyway. So it's really not strange that Moses could have written it himself. No. That's right. That's correct. It's not a human history book. It's God's Word. Even when we're reading God's Word, just like this example, you turn to humanistic reasoning right away. Right. And so we see here in verse 1, question 1, who brought them into the land? And what nations were cast out? And how were these nations described? Well, the Lord is the one. It's the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land. And then we have these seven nations that I mentioned. Hittites, the Girgasites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hybrids, the Jebusites. And they're described as nations that are greater and mightier. But yet God, it's God. And from a human standpoint, they were bigger, they were stronger, they were mightier, they had better tactics, they had big walls, they had big men. But still, it's the God that was going to be able to deliver them. And so that's what happened. It's a heavy question, too. What were they not to make? They were not to make any covenant with the nations of those seven countries. And what were they not to show any mercy to them? They had no covenants. They were shown their mercies. Who were they? Not the Mary. They were commanded specifically here in this verse not to marry the inhabitants of this territory. No marriage whatsoever with them because they were God's enemies and they were to be destroyed. Question four, Bill. What would kindle the anger of the Lord? Let's hear a brief verse. It's easier. For they will turn away my son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. And so we have a lot of examples of this. In other words, the theory is they're going to go in, they'll marry, they intermarry with the inhabitants of the land, and they'll draw the hearts of those people away, the wives, the sons, will have their hearts drawn away, and they would begin to serve other gods. We see this, this would happen in the example of Solomon. Solomon, his wives, his 700 wives, his 300 concubines, they completely fell, but they destroyed him. They had their own paganism. And so that's what the fear was. God says, don't do it. Don't do it. It didn't sound sometimes they may have done it anyway, which was sad, to do something contrary to what God recommended. What was to be done to the altars? And what was to be done to the graven images? Well, they were to break down the altars, this is of the enemies, and destroy the graven images. And you would think that if they saw this, heard this command, and they acted upon the command, that they themselves would not have graven images, they wouldn't have altars, because it's putting God in the wrong place, the true God, is placing him in the wrong place, a place where he does not belong. God belongs as number one. There should be no other gods before him. And so he's giving this command to the children of Israel. When you go in to conquer the land, you break down the altars. You destroy their false images with fire. You want to remove all the paganism from the land. But then the paganism kept on coming back into Israel. They had to get it out. Let's have Tammy illustrate it for me, verse 6. We'll do two each. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself among all the people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, for he were the fuel of all people. But because the Lord loved you and because you would keep the oaths which he had sworn to your fathers, half the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the land of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keepeth his commandments to a thousand generations. And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them, he will not be slack to him. that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I command thee this day to do them. Looking back here to question number six. How are the people of Israel depicted? Well, it says thou art holy, and a special people. So he's... Holy has the idea of... God has called him out and separated them and he's a beast. There they are, God's chosen people. And so that idea, part of the aspect of holiness is being chosen and being separated out of something. So God separated them out of all the nations, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham. He picked from all the possible choices of people to make Him a great nation. You see, the idea of holiness, attached to holiness, is also like righteousness and separation, purity, all these things. So God is saying to them, out of holy people unto the Lord. These are the people that God picked. God chose. He didn't forsake his people because it says they're special. They're a chosen group. That's right. They're a chosen group. A chosen group of people. Question seven. How did the census of Israel compare to the nations around them? They were the fewest in numbers. Right. So they were a very small number. And so the point being is, okay, so we have a small group of people, a small group of short people, by comparison, to a large group of huge people with wall, cities that are walled up, huge walls, they got the best security around the cities, but yet God is saying, trying to demonstrate the point, look, you're a very few people. By comparison, you're a small people in stature and so forth. And so from a human standpoint, it would be impossible. And so that was the whole point, to emphasize how impossible it would have been for them to conquer the territory, to show, to demonstrate that God was involved. With Gideon, same thing. I mean, it's the same thing with the fact that it's not Gideon's skills as a military leader. It was all God going down to a very few hundred men to attack a huge number of people. And then to send some of them back. Yeah. And so what, rather, who loved the children of Israel? And from where were they redeemed? Was the Lord the one that loved them? And God redeemed them, God brought them out of the house of bondage there in Egypt. God had brought them out. Tell me verse 9. For the length of time for a thousand generations In other words, it's God's God's promised this to Israel. There is a future for Israel The Israel is not stopped. It's not ceased. The church has not replaced Israel There's two distinct groups got the church Which is just here for interim period of time, a temporary period of time. We are in a traditional period of time, and Daniel's 70th week will be continued on. The church of Israel will continue on in the tribulation time period. The 70th week of Daniel will take place, will begin, when the church goes away, when the church is raptured. And for question 10, who is going to be repaid to their faces? God says, I'm going to repay those that hate me to their faces. The enemies of God that are there, these seven nations, God is going to repay and give Israel the victory. Question 11. What three things were the children of Israel commanded to keep? His commandments, statutes, and judgments? And so they were supposed to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments. These are the things they were to keep. Amy, let's read some more verses, please. Verse 12? Yes. Wherefore, it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep unto them, that the Lord thy God shall keep thee, or rather, shall keep unto thee, the covenant and mercy which ye swear unto thy fathers. And He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee. He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thy oil, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep, and the land which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Then I shall be blessed above all people. There shall not be male or female. There shall not be male or female. The Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of these evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee, thine eye shall have no pity upon them, neither shalt thou serve their gods, for that will be a snare unto thee. Yea, thou shalt stay in thine heart. These nations are more than I. How can I dispose them. Dispossess them, thank you. Going back to question 12. What did the Lord swear in the name of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? He swore that he made a covenant with them, a special covenant with them. That he's going to keep covenants and mercies. That's what he's swearing to the fathers. Tammy, number verse 13. What are three major things God said you would do? You would love them, bless them, and multiply them. First things, love them, bless them, and multiply them. Bless the food in their home, the land, cattle. All these things. So God said make them prosperous and make them grow. What would Israel's sustaining be among other peoples? He says, thou shalt be blessed among other people. Above all. Yeah, above all others. And so he's going to give them prosperity, give them blessing. Phil, question 15. What did the Lord promise to take away all sickness? And what was he going to place upon the haters of Israel, evil diseases of each That's right. All the haters are going to do that. What did the Lord say would be a snare unto Israel? False gods of the false nations. That's going to be a snare. And that came out to be true. It's true in every instance. It's always a snare. Anything that's against God, anything that's anti-God, is always a snare. Clearly, in this time period, the false gods They weren't pro-God. They weren't pro-true God. They were false gods. They were gods made of wood, out of stone, out of metal. They were nothing. And the people, the Lord told them not to have any gripe on these people. And that's a natural humanistic response. But the Lord had commanded them to destroy all of these people. Destroy all of their gods, don't even keep their silver or their gold, or whatever you think. Get rid of them all. Total destruction. I wonder if we'd have these problems in the Middle East today if they had obeyed God. Not as many. I mean, not as many. I mean, it goes back to the, you know, the Gibeonites. You know, it was all... They had mercy. They thought they could do it. And this goes back to this time period. Shortly after they came to the land, the Gibeonites came in and they knew they were local people. And so they pretended like they were from a far country. Say, hey, we're not from around here. The point is, well, if they're not from around here, then why do you have to worry about it? But the point is, they were deceived. And so they had the Gibeonites that were stuck into the days of Saul, and even then, when Saul broke the covenant, there were repercussions. Saul's sons, some of his sons and grandsons had to be had to be killed because of their, Paul, Saul's dealings, mistreatments of the Gibeonites. And so, there should be, for the principle of separation had to be there. So we have question 17, what might Israel have said in their hearts? They're gonna say, how can we dispossess them? They're gonna say in their own hearts, it's impossible for us to do this. But they should have done that. These nations are more than I. How can I dispossess them? This is what they may have said in their hearts. But they were told this because they need to have the faith in God. And God's the one that can bring them through. God is the one that can give them the victory. Can we read verse 18 now? No. OK. Let's read verse 18. Go ahead, Tammy. Thou should not be afraid of God. but shall remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh and unto all Egypt. The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out, so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid. Moreover, the Lord thy God will send the hornets among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. Thou shalt not be afraid of them, for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and a terrible God. And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little. Thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them into thy hand, shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. Did I miss something in that verse? I think you said it. Let me read it. Let me read it. The Lord thy God shall deliver them into thy hands. I'm not supposed to say that. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction until they be destroyed. Is that better? I think you're making up a word. OK, the thee. Look in your verse 18, Tammy, question 18. What were the children of Israel? I encourage you to remember what the Lord their God did for them on Tephara in Egypt. Yes, they were. They wanted to remember. So some of them were alive, and some of them weren't alive. No, right, that's right. That's right. I mean, they could have been 19 at the time, you know, and younger. And some of them had no recollection whatsoever about it. You know, it was going back 40 years ago. Going back to like 1980, a long time ago, right? I mean, it's not that long ago, but to someone that's a two-year-old, 1940 years ago, going back to 1980. So that's one-year-old, one-year-old, two-year-old, you know, four years is a long time, or five-year-old, however it might be. But yeah, so... But if they weren't around, those people that live in today, they weren't living in 1980, the young people. Even... people that are older people, people that, yeah, that's weird, isn't it? People that, we miss a lot of people that are younger than 40. But they're saying here, but still they should remember, they should know their history. We know our history, we know the history of how the United States was at war with Germany, not once, but twice. All, you know, how... Some people might not know that. Some people don't. They may need to know it. There's some talk about the Holocaust not being understood by... Well, we were... The United States was in a war of Germany two times. 1917 and 1941. Two wars. Yeah, the British had already been at war for two years by the time we entered it. And so he says, remember, remember how God put God in the pharaoh in the region. So as they're about ready to approach these new seven nations that are mightier than they are and taller and stronger with impregnable cities, so they thought, what God could do. What was the Lord going to do to those that feared Israel? The Israelites feared, rather. The Lord was going to... He was going to send hornets there. He was going to drive them out of the land. The question's pointing. What did the Lord promise to St. Hornets? St. Hornets. So little by little, they were going to go out and they were going to be driven out of the land. Thou shalt not be a friend unto them. Why? Because the Lord's among them. Don't be afraid. He says the Lord's among you. Sometimes we have to understand, you know, we are involved by the Holy Spirit of God. The Lord is with us. We have to do what God wants us to do. We have to do what's right. And so he was trying to encourage them. He was basically reminding them, the Lord, the creator of the universe is on your side. You have nothing to fear. Be obedient to him, follow his commands, do what he wants you to do. He's promised to give the victory. If you don't remember this, ask somebody that was there about what happened. in Egypt. Ask one of the old guys, one of the 59-year-olds, what it was like when God brought them out of Egypt. Ask him what it was like, what the darkness was like. Ask him what the light, ask him what the light was like. Ask him what it was like to walk across the Red Sea on dry ground. Ask him why these things had to be refreshed in the minds of the younger generation. But the bottom line is, God is consistently faithful through all time periods. He doesn't change. He's immutable. Amy, question 22. What did the Lord say would happen if Israel conquered its enemies all at once? That the beast of the fields would increase upon them? And so we got them all, took care of them all at one time. I saw... As far as you want it, you don't want to completely get rid of it. It's a gradual thing. That way they can bring the... The Israel can come in and occupy the territory so that the wild animals don't come in and take over. I saw wild turkey. And he flew up there. I wanted to get a picture. I had my camera on him for 20 seconds. He didn't move. He flew over there on the sideline, up to the top of that building over there. And he sat up there for a while. He's not there anymore. He was perched up there. Because we have, you know, it's like, they're almost like an eagle now, the turkey. You know, the eagle, the spotted owl, you know, the goldfish. You can't do anything with them. Because of... Yeah, I wouldn't want to shoot a turkey, a wild turkey, and then expect to eat it. You know, what kind of diseases they may have. Maybe it's not around here, right? Yeah, there's plenty of them around, too. And so because of... There's this imbalance. I mean, the idea of... But the people are what's important. So God says, come in to the land, and don't make it gradually. You don't want the beasts of the field to overwhelm the land. Do you have a comment about that, Tatum? Yeah, I was thinking about something. It could be like that, a spiritual parallel, because if you kind of If you come on too strong, you can actually create sort of a vacuum and then other people come in and it seems like the fighting gets worse. If you teach people something versus if you Am I making sense? You're making sense. OK. You have to be as you can't overwhelm. You were talking about the overwhelming thing. Trying to completely vanquish this problem or some mindset or something by being extra vigilant or something. You could end up actually making it worse. Right. And so it has to be a gradual. You have to allow. the room for the growth. I mean, not just in a spiritual sense, even politically. I mean, if you get a politician who turns out too strong this way, then you're going to get a big, strong response. I mean, that's perhaps more understandable in the bill. You get more of a response from the other side, a stronger response as opposed to it's more gradual. which has actually been the tactic of the left, that we don't get as much of a response. That's right. I'm cold, but I'm not cold. It's like my head is cold. Do you know how to shut the air conditioner off in both rooms? Take a look. I'm going to do it. I can turn it down. Let's just turn it off completely. It's warm enough in here. It's warm enough? Yeah. Have you tried any Benadryl or Claritin or anything? I've used them in the past and they make me sicker. Oh. So. Is this 5 degrees? Yeah, we'll shut the other one off too if you want. That's pretty warm. You know, it's like, it's almost, the summer's almost finished. Yeah. By this time. March morning is going to be cold. Yeah, that's what they're saying. In the 40s. Here's what I've been saying on the radio. The sun is going to fill out the fall. Well, it's almost, because it's a day away from the fall. Hi, Julie. Yeah, nice to see you today, Julie. Oh, hi, Julie. You're late. It's okay. It's not a problem, not a problem. I'm glad you came. We're in Deuteronomy chapter 7, and we're just about ready to talk about verse 23. Who promised to deliver the enemies of the children of Israel? It's the Lord. The Lord's going to be delivering them. If it was up to them, then certainly they would not be able to do it. But it's not. It's up to what the Lord is doing. The Lord is the one that's going to be the deliverer. All right, so let's read a few more verses here. Julie, you want to start with verse 24? And Tammy, you'll go with verse 25? Are we reading? Yeah, we're reading verse 24. I'm not sure. Julie's mic is off. We'll wait until her mic comes on. Maybe she can't. Maybe she can't. Maybe she can't. All right, Tammy, you go with 24. The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire now shall not a desire the silver or gold and that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein. For it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. Turn to Romans, verse 26, please. Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it. But thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing. All right, Tammy, question 24. Who did the Lord deliver into their hands? The kings of the nations. And what were they commanded to destroy? Their name from under heaven. That's right, they were commanded to destroy them. Angelique, question 25. What was to be burnt with fire, the Craven images? And what were they told not to desire, the silver or gold that was on these images? And so they were supposed to be destroyed. It says that they weren't supposed to desire the gold, the silver. The value of gold today is around $1,900 an ounce. And the value of silver today is maybe $27 an ounce, in a sense, value. Now the point I'm trying to bring up, it's valuable. But they weren't, they weren't, they weren't, so these are images that are overlaid with gold, overlaid with silver. And so they were supposed to destroy them entirely. So don't even consider them of any value whatsoever. As far as the value, as far as the, you know, for mental idol, no value whatsoever. As far as, it's not a false god. And they were destroyed. So question 26. What was not to be brought into their houses? Any abomination, which would have been one of their idols. Because they were supposed to detest all these things. The point was to serve the one true God. That's what was supposed to happen. All right, so Tammy Warren Deuteronomy, there's one read about Massa. What happened today? What happened there? Deuteronomy 6.16 says, You shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted Him in Massa. They tempted God by complaining. And they were saying in verse 2 of chapter 17 of Exodus, Give us water to drink. with Moses saying, wherefore is this that thou brought us up out of Egypt to kill us? There are children that are cattle with furs. And then they asked, is this the Lord among us or not? Any other chapters you find it in, Julie? So it's chapter 6, chapter 9, and then there's one more chapter, it's chapter 33, right? And if we go back to Exodus chapter 17, verse 7 for a while, Exodus 17, verse 7. Okay, let's go back to verse 2. 17 and 2. Let's read through verse 7. You want to start with reading verse 2, Tammy? Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? Well, verse 3. And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this, that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us, and our children, and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before this people, rather the people, and take with thee the elders of Israel. And they arrived wherewith thou smotest the river. Take it in thy hand, and go. Behold, I stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb. And there shall smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the charging of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? This is going back previously, you know, how faithless of a generation. They've witnessed many things come down to Egypt. Yet they're saying, surely he was among them. He's continually among them, he's continually providing for them, but their eyes are closed. Well, they clearly had a thirst problem. Yes, they did. And they just handled it incorrectly, rather than saying, Moses prayed for us, that the Lord would give us water. Right. They became troubled, and then they believed that the Lord wasn't there anymore. Right. That's right. All right, Julie, question 28. Where in the book of Deuteronomy is it revealed that Israel rebelled against the commandment of the Lord? In Deuteronomy 1.26, notwithstanding he would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God. Tammy, question 29. And also 143. 143. That's when they went up after the Lord had told them not to go up. Yes. And then actually in Deuteronomy 9, I'm not sure what that is, 923. Yes, sure. Likewise, 923. Likewise, when the Lord sent you from Caesarea, saying, go up and possess the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and you believed him not, you are hearkened to his voice. So, not believing God is a form of rebellion, isn't it? Right. Tammy, question 29. What do you see as the dominant theme of Deuteronomy chapter 7? The children of Israel were going to the promised land and conquer other people. Though they were afraid and small in number, the Lord would fight for them. if you want to apply it obey the lord's commandments and statutes that is the primary theme of the whole chapter and even because it's the new age of law moses is putting the law into writing for the people and god expects obedience even in the new testament Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. Obedience to God is important. And they were challenged because I don't think they were so bloodthirsty that they just wanted to go in and kill a bunch of people. But the Lord ordered it. So they were faced with the challenge, do I spare some of these people? Or am I going to be completely obedient to the Lord? And even when God was saying, don't keep any of the gold or silver from their idols, that would be a strong temptation for them too. But they weren't to keep that either. I think Joy, want to add to that any? I just thought what Bill said was interesting. I hadn't thought about how difficult it might have been to be told to go in and kill even women and children in some cases. Yeah. But I agree with the dominant theme that it would seem to be that Israel had great favor with God, that they were to keep his commandments and his judgments and statutes to enjoy the blessings of God. I mean, as far as, also I think to remember how God is consistent. It doesn't change what God did in the past, He'll continue to do in the future. This is what God has promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so certainly He's going to fulfill His promise. Bill, what's the question? What verse do you like best from Deuteronomy? I choose verse 26. Yeah, neither... the last verse. here shop now bring abomination into the house let's now the accursed thing like it but now shop utterly detested and now shop utterly abhorrent for it is a cursed thing and that's my favorite verse because you have to actually think about uh... what the lord is commanding you to do uh... to uh... if you were tempted to uh... like the gold and the silver or something, but to learn to detest it means you have to think it through and understand that God has a purpose. He doesn't tell us to do something without a specific purpose. And even though it may not be obvious or apparent at the time, He has a reason. His reasoning is far beyond ours. So, you know, to accept his word and to be faithful to it. That's what I think. And it's the responsibility of the person to think about these things and to consider what the Lord says and consider what he's asking you to do. Think it through. That's good. Process it. There's an association there, the things that are associated in the mind. How about you, Julie? More thoughts about question 30. I had verse number nine, know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keepeth his commandments to a thousand generations. I think just the faithfulness and love of God is this. And again, that he doesn't change. I just really like that verse. That's cool. How about you, Tammy? Verse 22 and 23. And the Lord thy God, I'm cheating, will put out those nations before thee by little and little. Thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the hill increase upon thee. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction until they be destroyed. I was going to put the parentheses. Yes, that's OK. Kind of like I was saying before, as far as sometimes if you come on too strong, then there's a response. In this case, it would be the beast in the field. Sometimes it's a response of nature, and sometimes it's I pick 24, and he shall deliver their kings into thy hand, for this is what God is doing for them, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven. For there shall no man be able to stand before thee until thou have destroyed them. A very good promise that the gods have given the ultimate victory. Okay, question number one, Bill. Okay. uh... were some additional observations uh... from your reading of deuteronomy chapter seven i don't have any additional observations uh... it's just a matter of uh... i elaborated a little bit uh... on uh... my favorite verse from this chapter And I guess that would qualify as my additional observation. Now, that counts. That works. That'll work. How about you, Jolene? This is an observation from Course 31. Well, I did have another one from what you just said about the no man shall be able to stand before thee if God before us. Who can be against us? And then, again, in Romans 8, where Wait, where is it? Let's see. That in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. And eventually that nothing, none of these things shall be able to separate us from the love of God. But anyway, that wasn't what I had originally written. My original thoughts were how many, several times, that covenant and mercy was mentioned, and heaven too, where made no covenant or show mercy to the people of the land, but in kind of contrast to that in 7.9, 7.12, how the Lord keeps His covenant and mercy with them that love Him, and the mercy and covenant that He swears to the fathers. I just thought it was an interesting contrast. Yes. How about you, Tammy? what would happen with those idols. And then also, and so, we saw that with Achan, in the Book of Joshua. I mean, as soon as they went in and conquered Jericho, I mean, he brought back something that he wasn't supposed to have. The cursed thing, it's called. A wedge of gold and a Babylonian garment. Right, and they weren't to have any mercy or make any covenants like Julie brought up, you know, with any of the people. And yet, like we talked about earlier, that's what the Giving Knights did. Because they weren't focused on the Lord, because they weren't bringing everything to Him in prayer and asking for His wisdom and seeking His guidance and being still and being willing to do what He said. the matter of that means stop what you're doing immediately. But these people came along and said, you know, we want to make a covenant with you. And so then they were the acting people pleasers. And they did. And it became a problem and a snare for them. So God wanted to have complete remembrance and complete obedience. He wanted them to completely remember what he had done in the past for previous generations. And he wanted them to have obedience and do what he told them to do so that God could continue to bless them. Because if they failed to be obedient, then God was going to say, look, if you're going to disobey, then your enemies are going to intermarry. They're going to be a snare to you. They're going to be a prick to you. Things are going to go poorly for you. But he wanted them to obey and do what was right. So that they can be blessed continually. What thoughts anyone has about Chapter 7? I guess, Dan, what you were just saying makes me think of how a Christian can allow things to come into his or her life that will contaminate, corrupt, and so subtly sometimes that you don't see it happening. You've been drawn away into the things of the world or anything like that. having to always be vigilant about it, and maintaining close contact with the Lord about things. I guess this is our... Henry, this is the Word, the Bible, that's our... that's my defense, I think. That's right. That's right. Well, next week we'll talk about Chapter 8, Lord willing. And... well, would you close the prayer, please? Father in heaven, we thank you for giving us these scriptures to read. This is the one way that we have in which we can learn about you and learn to understand all the things that you have done. Even though you don't speak to people today, at least not in a voice that they can hear, we have your word. And this Bible is complete and we can trust it for everything that is in it. And it's because it is complete that we have everything that you want us to have. So we put our faith and our trust in you and continue to read and study and appreciate these words. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.