Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 8:1-10
‘All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.’
We need to have some background concerning this portion of scripture. The children of Israel have wandered for 40 years in the wilderness. Now they are about to enter into the Promised Land. All that are supposed to die have died and for the rest it is time to enter in.
The purpose of the commandments is:
1. I may live
2. I may multiply
3. I may possess my inheritance
We must fully understand God’s purpose in whatever he has accomplished for us. That in this life we may live, we may multiply and we may possess our inheritance. What can we learn from this portion of Scripture?
1. The Wilderness Experience
The children of Israel have gone through 40 years of wilderness wandering, full of trials and rebellion and heartache. We too have our wilderness experience. The wilderness experience is designed to produce both obedience and faith in us. In that 40 years, Deuteronomy 8:3 brings it out so well; ‘And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. In my 30 years of wilderness walking with God, truly God has humbled me, suffered me to hunger. But he did not forsake me. He fed me with manna, miraculous supply and of course spiritual food too. In the desert I could not provide for my own sustenance but had to depend on God for the daily sustenance and thus for my very life. Of course in the midst of the wilderness life, I truly knew not that he has always been there and whatever has been provided for me has been of his doing and his supply. I did learn one thing though and that is ‘That I may know that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeded from the mouth of the LORD doeth man live.’ We literally depended on the Word of God during those wilderness life. Why did God do all these things to me? That in my heart I may know that as a man chastened his son, so the LORD my God chasten me.
Yes I may not like to hear it but God chastened me because of my carnality, my sinful pleasure.
2. The time to go into our Promised Land
But God is still not finished with me. And God is not finished with Evangel Tabernacle yet. The best is yet to come. The best things in life are about to begin. He comes in and gives me an amazing promise and I believe likewise he does that to you. The promise is found in Deu 8:7-10. It reads:
“For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.’
This is referring to the future of Evangel Tabernacle and also the future of our individual lives. Let’s digest Deu 8:7-10.
There are a few truth that is found here: Firstly it is YHWH that will bring me into the land. It says that ‘for the LORD (YHWH) your GOD (ELOHIM)’. Our GOD’s name is YHWH. Evangel Tabernacle’s GOD is YHWH. That is the name of our God. That is the name that GOD has invested into our body, soul and spirit.
Secondly the land is a good land. The phrase ‘good land’ is repeated twice; in verse 7 and later in verse 10. It will be a wonderful land. It will be a fertile land. The land represents our inheritance. There will be streams of waters, springs and well. There will be wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranate, olive and full of honey. It will be a land without scarceness, without lack. There will be no shortage of food. It will be a land that I can dig for copper or brass. The stones will be strong like iron or in the stone will be found iron.
3. Meditation
God told me to meditate on it; more especially on Deu 8:7-10. I was brought to Joshua 1:8 “I shall meditate on it day and night.’ Deu 8:7-10 is the instruction from God and Joshua was to mediate on Deu 8:7-10 as he was about to enter that good land.
I want to concentrate a little bit here on the word meditation. To be very honest, I pray and read the word of God. But I could not fully understand the word meditation. There are only two people that talk to me about meditation and literally exercise it. One is Pastor James and the other is Brother Daniel Ng. Pastor James without fail every night at around 9 to 10 or late evening, he would be all alone, quiet from all noises and family members and he will literally sit on a chair and meditate and I found his meditation very powerful. I feel that his effectiveness as modern day Prophet has to do with this mediation. I did a research on meditation, of course in the Christian context. I am concentrating on meditation in regards to the Word of God. Now what is meditating?
Meditate means to ‘think about it’, ‘fill my heart and mind with this word’. In mediation, I am to devote myself to the task of understanding the word and obeying it. The command to meditate means to make it the basis for daily and lifelong plans. So in regards to Deu 8:7-10 it is to become the basis for my daily plan and lifelong plans. In actions, I really have to find and buy lands where there is spring waters, streams of waters, where there is iron and brass. My strength and courage will come from meditating on the Word of God, believing its promises, and obeying its precepts. In the Old Testament there are three primary Hebrew words for meditation: Haga, which means to utter, groan, meditate, or ponder; and Sihach, which means to muse, rehearse in one’s mind, or contemplate. Biyn means “to separate or distinguish mentally.” These words can also be translated as dwell, diligently consider, and heed.
God has kept a written record of God’s word and acts and committed it to the cares of priests. The leadership and the leaders of this church are the priests. Actually God’s word is a book of covenant, with special regulations dealing with inheritance and songs that taught God’s people to sing. The greatest legacy a man of God has in life is the book of God. I like that show titled ‘The Book of Eli’. Denzel Washington protected the book of life all his life. He read the book and actually it was found to be in braille. But Denzel Washington memorized the whole book. I want to say that the greatest legacy God has left for us is the book of life. Jesus and actually the originator of the book, God, has left this greatest legacy for us.
It is not enough to carry the book. We have to carry to book to the house of God. It is not enough to have a thick bible displayed in the house. We have to take time to read it daily and make it a part of your inner man by meditating on it. One important thing the Bible tells us to do is to think about God’s Word. Our thoughts determine our behavior and so what we think about is very important. That is why God wants us to think about His Word, or meditate on it. Jim Downing in Meditation says God considers meditation a “vital exercise of the minds of His children.”
The Hebrew word translated ‘meditate’ is “mutter”. It is the practice of the Jew to read scripture aloud and talk about it to themselves and to one another. A pastor says this in a conference; “if you don’t talk to your bible, your bible isn’t likely to talk to you (Rhema)
In the life of the Christian believer, prosperity and success (sad to say that that is what we Christian are after) aren’t to be measured by the standards of the world. These blessings (prosperity and success) are a by-products of a life devoted to God and His Word. If you set out your goal in life to become prosperous and successful, you may achieve your goal and live to regret it. ‘In whatever man does without God, wrote Scottish novelist George MacDonald, ‘he must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably.” I conclude that a child of God’s life consist of obeying the precepts of God, get his strength and courage by meditating on the Word of God, believing its promises and set his daily plan and lifelong plans to cooperate with God to see its fulfilment.
I share with you the power of meditation from an agonistic (a person who holds that God is unknown and unknowable). He was none other than my founding Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. I was very affected by his interview on 1 September 2010 by The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. Please understand that he had just passed away on March 23, 2015 at the age of 89. So he was at the age of 84 when he gave this interview. Also understand that at that time his wife had a major stroke and could not talk, bed ridden and had to be spoon fed. The interview was on September 1, 2010 and his wife passed away on October 2, 2010, one month later after the interview. So he was really going through a difficult time, his own health was deteriorating and his wife was about to pass away any time. So this question was posed to him.
Q: “Tell me about meditation?”
Mr Lee said, “Well, I started it about two, three years ago when Ng Kok Song, the Chief Investment Officer of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, I knew he was doing meditation. His wife, (Ng Kok Song’s wife) had died but he was completely serene (tranquil, peaceful). So, I said, how do you achieve this? He said I meditate every day and so did my wife and when she was dying of cancer, she was totally serene because she meditated every day and he gave me a video of her in her last few weeks; completely composed, completely relaxed and she and him had been meditating for years. Well, I said to him, you teach me. He is a devout Christian (Ng Kok Song is a devout Catholic). He was taught by a man called Laurence Freeman, a Catholic. When I was in London, Ng Kok Song introduced me to Laurence Freeman. In fact, he is coming on Saturday to visit Singapore, and we will do a meditation session. The problem is to keep the monkey mind from running off into all kinds of thoughts. It is most difficult to stay focused on the mantra. The discipline is to have a mantra (a chant, a word, a repetition) which you keep repeating in your innermost heart, no need to voice it over and over again throughout the whole period of meditation. The mantra they recommended was a religious one. Ma Ra Na Ta, four syllables. Come To Me Oh Lord Jesus. So I said Okay, I am not a Catholic but I will try. He said you can take any other mantra, Buddhist Om Mi Tuo Fo (thank God Lee Kuan Yew did not use the Buddhist mantra), and keep repeating it. To me Ma Ran Na Ta is more soothing. So I used Ma Ra Na Ta. You must be disciplined. I find it helps me go to sleep after that. A certain tranquillity settles over you. The day’s pressures and worries are pushed out. Then there’s less problem sleeping. I miss it sometimes when I am tired, or have gone out to a dinner and had wine. Then I cannot concentrate. Otherwise I stick to it. A good meditator will do it for half-an-hour. I do it for 20 minutes. For Ng Kok Song, ‘Well, I am not as serene as he is. He has done it for many years and he is a devout Catholic. That makes a difference. He believes in Jesus. He believes in the teachings of the Bible. He has lost his wife, a great calamity. But the wife was serene. He gave me this video to show how meditation helped her in her last few months. I do not think I can achieve his level of serenity. But I do achieve some composure.”
Brothers and Sisters, we are hearing from a man, just using the word ‘Maranatha’ which is found in the bible and it has such powerful effect on him. How about us? Brothers and Sister, we have the book of life. We have YHWH our GOD (ELOHIM). We have the real thing. We don’t just have Maranatha, we have powerful after powerful words of God. If Lee Kuan Yew just used Ma Ra Na Ta, and it is already so powerful, how much more if we take time to meditate on the Word (Rhema) that God gives us.
Actually, the Bible mentions meditate or meditation 20 times. Joshua 1:8 says, ‘This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Psalms 1:2 says ‘But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalms 19:14 says ‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.’ Psalm 119:15 says, ‘I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
Jesus has always set the example. What do you think Jesus did for 40 days while fasting in the desert? Consistently after a hectic day’s work, Jesus would suddenly disappear in the mountain and he will only return in the morning. I believe the best example of Jesus’ meditation was at the mount of transfiguration. In our own ability we failed miserably in meditation. But Jesus succeeded and after his resurrection, he has given us the Holy Spirit, called alongside to help us in regards to meditation. He breathed into us the Holy Spirit so that we are empowered to be spiritually alive to meditate on His Word.
The world we are living in today, few any longer take time to think! In this rushed and harried age, some no longer even know how. The rat race of going to and from work every day, children, the TV, the telephone, Facebook, twitter, Instagram—all negatively impact our opportunity to find peace and quiet. God actually instructs His servants to “think”! He calls its most vital form, ‘meditation’. Meditation is a key to proper Bible study. Without meditation (accompanied by prayer, study, fasting and then exercising the Holy Spirit), it would be very difficult to understand God’s will. You Are What You Think. Meditate means “to reflect on, to contemplate. To plan in the mind; intend. To think or reflect, especially in a calm and deliberate manner. To keep the mind in a state of contemplation; to dwell on anything in thought; to think seriously; to muse; to reflect. To purpose; to intend; to design; to plan by revolving in the mind. To consider; to ponder; to weigh; to revolve; to study.” This is comprehensive! Meditation is not daydreaming. It is conscious thought control—on a biblical topic. For instance on Deu 8:7-10. Most people today cannot control their thoughts.
Meditate on instruction given to you. Most of the time, when people are given instruction, it flows from one ear, straight out the other. Take the time to catch instruction and keep it. Meditate on the scriptures so that Bible characters become real to you. Hollywood depicts most of God’s servants as odd, long-haired “nutcases.” We are called monks. Look at Elijah, Elisha. John the Baptist. They are true nutcases but what power they have. Look at the latest Sadhu Sunda, that everybody is talking about. Look at his clothing. A nutcase.
4. The Results of Meditation
Meditation brings prosperity and success: “…for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success” (Josh. 1:8).
Meditation brings great blessings: “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper” (Psa. 1:3).
Meditation brings hope: “Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall…This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope…They are new every morning: great is Your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:19, 21, 23).
Meditation brings wisdom and understanding: “You through Your commandments have made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Your testimonies are my meditation” (Psa. 119:98-99).
Meditation brings gladness: “My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord” (104:34).
Meditation brings strength: “Princes also did sit and speak against me: but Your servant did meditate in Your statutes. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors” (119:23-24).
Meditation brings perseverance and endurance: “For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds” (Heb. 12:3).
Meditation can prevent you from backsliding: “And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He has prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:15-16).
But most importantly, meditation can lead to eternal life: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6).
