Daily Thoughts from Deuteronomy 4:23-31: Consuming Fire, Merciful (Esh Ak’lah, Rachum)

6. Consuming Fire, Merciful (Esh Ak’lah, Rachum)

Watch out for yourselves, so that you won’t forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourself a carved image, a representation of anything forbidden to you by Yahweh your God. For Yahweh your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

 “When you have had children and grandchildren, lived a long time in the land, become corrupt and made a carved image, a representation of something, and thus done what is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God and provoked him; I call on the sky and the earth to witness against you today that you will quickly disappear from the land that you are crossing the Yarden to possess. You will not prolong your days there but will be completely destroyed. Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples; and among the nations to which Yahweh will lead you away, you will be left few in number. There you will serve gods which are the product of human hands, made of wood and stone, which can’t see, hear, eat or smell. However, from there you will seek Yahweh your God; and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and being. In your distress, when all these things have come upon you, in the latter days, you will return to Yahweh your God and listen to what he says; for Yahweh your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you, destroy you, or forget the covenant with your ancestors which he swore to them.

(D’varim 4:23-31)

He once again scoured the area looking for the prints of what must have been some large creature.  The growl was deep and guttural and could not have come from some small animal.  And the malevolence in it was unmistakable.  It wanted to devour him, tear him, kill him.

But once again no tracks were discovered.  He began to play with the idea that this might be some device of the evil one.  He had seen how unclean spirits could terrify people.  Perhaps satan was employing some trick to scare him.  Well it was working.  Or maybe satan was inducing some beast to threaten him.  But why no tracks?

Somehow thinking of it this way actually emboldened him.  He knew this tactic of the enemy.  He had seen it work so effectively in the lives of those demonized.  The fear paralyzed them and effectively kept them from trusting Yahweh and His help.

It did not help that hunger was attacking him at the same time.  Together these two matters were justification to return to civilization and end this discomfort.  But that could not happen.  He drank some water from the cistern, which was getting a little low.  He thought of his father David, who had traveled these very traces and was sustained.

David had written, “As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”  His thirst for Yahweh was more powerful and more needful of being assuaged than any physical thirst.

“Thank you, Father, for that reminder.”

He went to the scroll.  Moshe was settling those few tribes on the east side of the river and as he did so he was warning them of the danger of violating the covenant by yielding to idolatry.  Yahweh would not abide such a flagrant violation of covenant.  Like a fire He would burn it away.  And in His mercy, when that day that Moshe predicted did, in fact, come and Yisrael was expelled from the land, He had turned His people’s hearts back to Him and restored them to the land.  He had kept covenant when they did not.  And He would yet again should they forsake Him.

Was there any temptation in his own heart to resort to idols?  If he could control the Father, would he?  The lure of the idol was finding a way to manipulate God.  If he made an image of God as a great cat, acknowledging God’s character as a consuming fire, would God protect him from the violent cat?

Yes, he would desire that the Father not test him this way anymore.  But this would be giving in to the thirst for his own comfort rather than for a true relationship with the Father.  Like Adam he would really be vaunting himself into the position of determining good and evil instead of trusting his Father’s goodness.

It started raining.  He had been so preoccupied that he hadn’t noticed the change in the weather.  Before too long the trench John had laid was already funneling water into the cistern.  “Thank you, Father, for your provision of my needs.”  Of course he couldn’t have anything but a real relationship with his Father, could not settle for any seeming control of Him.

He slept.