“Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live, enter, and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, so that you may keep the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you,” (Deuteronomy 4:1-2).
Did you know that when the Lord led the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, the land of slavery, that He intended for them to immediately enter into the Land of Promise that He had prepared for them? It was the land for them to enter, to live, and to take possession of the Promise He had given to them. The whole story is recorded for us in the Book of Exodus. I encourage you to read it. Now, as we come to the verses above, Moses was calling for the people to remember all the blessings and miracles the Lord God had performed for them, so that they might continue to put their trust in the God of their fathers, and to hide His commands in their hearts “so they might not sin against Him”, and so that they might “live, and enter, and take possession of the land that God was giving them.” Even though they were a sinful and rebellious people, God still had a plan and a purpose for the children of Israel to take hold of the blessing He had given unto them.
And He has a plan and a purpose for you and me today, to live, to enter, and to take possession of the promises He has given unto us. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but I have come that they might have life, and to have it more abundantly.” However, it is sin, and rebellion, fear and unbelief, that keeps us from enjoying the life He has for us.
