Word of Encouragement (01/12/2023)
“But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. (Deut. 32:15-18)
Moses refers to Israel as “Jeshurun” (which means “upright”). This nomenclature is used only in biblical poetry as a term of endearment. We can see its ironic usage in this passage: God (through Moses) calls Israel by this term of endearment, showing how dear he is to Him; what we read of Jeshurun, however, is of his betrayal of God and rebellion against Him.
We first hear, “Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked [that is, grew strong]; you grew fat, stout, and sleek.” How did he come to be this way? Remember how he was when God found him? “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness” (v. 10). Left to himself, he would have perished in the wilderness, either by starvation or as prey. But God cared for him as the apple of His eye, like an eagle caring for its young (vv. 10-11). The LORD guided him (v. 12). As we saw last time, God blessed him with rich and abundant blessings (vv. 13-14). And as the name, Jeshurun, suggests, God held him dear in His heart—in fact, like the apple of His eye! What did God deserve from Jeshurun? Nothing less than his whole-hearted gratitude and service!
But what did Jeshurun return for God’s gracious generosity? The evil of betrayal and rebellion: “...he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.” Earlier, God asked, “Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you” (v. 6)? What ingratitude! To forsake God was to forsake his Father, who gave him life. To forsake God was to forsake the One, who gave him the very life and strength, which he was using now to run away from Him!
This is the hideous sin we all commit when we reject God. God has given us the faculty of mind with all its amazing abilities so that we can come to know God even though He transcends time and space, in the realm of which we live. But with that mind, we come up with all kinds of reasons to deny His existence and question His ways and laws, not to mention devising and plotting all kinds of evil. With the strength God has given us to live in service of God and others, we commit all kinds of sin, working for our carnal and selfish desires. Our sins are doubly wicked, aren’t they? Not only do we violate the law of God; but we also use the very life, strength, and talents, which God has given to us to use for His glory, for evil.
How are you stewarding God’s rich blessings and gifts to you? God has blessed you not only with a natural life but also with a new and spiritual birth in Jesus Christ. Because God has adopted you as His child, God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ. God has given you His Word and His Spirit. Peter tells us, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3). Are these things being put to their intended good use? Or, is the contrary true in your life—the more God blesses you, the farther you run away from Him? May the Spirit of Christ enable us to see the wickedness of such ingratitude and rebellion and cause us to turn toward God in repentance and faith!