IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

He is the Rock; All His Ways Are Just

Date: Feb. 16, 2023

Passage

Deuteronomy 31:30-32:27 (ESV)

30 Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel:

  “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
    and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
  May my teaching drop as the rain,
    my speech distill as the dew,
  like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
    and like showers upon the herb.
  For I will proclaim the name of the LORD;
    ascribe greatness to our God!
  “The Rock, his work is perfect,
    for all his ways are justice.
  A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
    just and upright is he.
  They have dealt corruptly with him;
    they are no longer his children because they are blemished;
    they are a crooked and twisted generation.
  Do you thus repay the LORD,
    you foolish and senseless people?
  Is not he your father, who created you,
    who made you and established you?
  Remember the days of old;
    consider the years of many generations;
  ask your father, and he will show you,
    your elders, and they will tell you.
  When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
    when he divided mankind,
  he fixed the borders of the peoples
    according to the number of the sons of God.
  But the LORD’s portion is his people,
    Jacob his allotted heritage.
10   “He found him in a desert land,
    and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
  he encircled him, he cared for him,
    he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11   Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
    that flutters over its young,
  spreading out its wings, catching them,
    bearing them on its pinions,
12   the LORD alone guided him,
    no foreign god was with him.
13   He made him ride on the high places of the land,
    and he ate the produce of the field,
  and he suckled him with honey out of the rock,
    and oil out of the flinty rock.
14   Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
    with fat of lambs,
  rams of Bashan and goats,
    with the very finest of the wheat—
    and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.
15   “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 not God,
    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.
19   “The LORD saw it and spurned them,
    because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20   And he said, ‘I will hide my face from them;
    I will see what their end will be,
  for they are a perverse generation,
    children in whom is no faithfulness.
21   They have made me jealous with what is no god;
    they have provoked me to anger with their idols.
  So I will make them jealous with those who are no people;
    I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22   For a fire is kindled by my anger,
    and it burns to the depths of Sheol,
  devours the earth and its increase,
    and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23   “‘And I will heap disasters upon them;
    I will spend my arrows on them;
24   they shall be wasted with hunger,
    and devoured by plague
    and poisonous pestilence;
  I will send the teeth of beasts against them,
    with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.
25   Outdoors the sword shall bereave,
    and indoors terror,
  for young man and woman alike,
    the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26   I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;
    I will wipe them from human memory,”
27   had I not feared provocation by the enemy,
    lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
  lest they should say, “Our hand is triumphant,
    it was not the LORD who did all this.”’

Daily Bread

Key Verse: 31:31:4

Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel:

God’s concern for future generations inspired this song, recited by Moses. Art, poetry, and music powerfully mold and shape culture, for better or worse. God uses all of these to continue to reveal himself generation to generation.

The song begins by revealing who God is. God is the Rock whose work is perfect and who remains faithful and just. As Creator and Father, God is objectively and subjectively intimate in relationship with His people who in contrast are corrupt. God chose Israel, cared and provided for them as the apple of his eye; God watched over them like a mother eagle. God led them day by day as a good Father providing all the best things.

But God’s people grew fat on God’s blessings and abandoned the God who made and saved them. Like an unfaithful spouse, they turn to idols of contemporary culture. God’s anger resulting in wrath and calamity were symbols of a jealous God. Yet God’s goal is to receive his people again – not based on their merits but based on his mercy and his desire to reveal that mercy to all nations of the world (26-27).

Prayer: Prayer: Father, you are so faithful and just to me and my family, in spite of my unfaithfulness. Thank you for seeking me and revealing your mercy. May songs of your mercy and faithfulness turn our culture and the hearts of our children back to you.

One Word: One Word: The LORD is our Father

Daily Bread

Joseph and Potiphar

Genesis 39:1-12

Key Verse: 39:9

He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”

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Intro Daily