I decided to do some research ready to write David Crowder and inform him of his theological inaccuracies. I went to Bible.org and entered "we are His portion" ready to be proven right. The searched returned Deuteronomy 32:9. "For the LORD’S portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance." Wait. What? "The LORD'S portion is His people." How could that be?
Context is everything. Read around it. Surely you can still prove you are right. This verse comes at the end of Deuteronomy. The end of the second telling of the law. The end of the wilderness. The final words of Moses. This passage actually comes in the Song of Moses.
"One Old Testament scholar called the Song of Moses "one of the most impressive religious poems in the entire Old Testament." It contrasts the faithfulness and loyal love of God with the unfaithfulness and perversity of His people" (soniclight.org)
Verse 8 describes the LORD giving the nations their inheritance. He has given His people their portion. He has trusted them to care for what He has given them. "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel." (Deut. 32:8)
Then Moses goes on to describe us as The Lord's portion. We are His portion: His share, His part, His territory, His own possession, His allotment. We are His inheritance.
I am humbled. When I think of the Lord as my portion I think of Him as my hope, my future, my all. He is everything to me and all I could ever need. The idea that I could be anything like that to Him is overwhelming to me. Me- the Lord's inheritance? No.
Moses follows on in his song to describe how the Lord cared for Jacob. "In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye," (Deut. 32:10). Those are the tender words of how you would care for your inheritance. The rest of the song continues to describe how the Lord cared and protected His portion.
I know that God loves me. I've known that for as long as I can remember. I suppose there is a part of me that knows that with my mind, but somehow looks at His love as an obligation. Something along the lines of "I love you. I just don't like you right now." You can love without longing. You can love without placing true value on the object. That's not how God loves.
Most days I don't feel too loveable. I see my selfishness, my insecurity, my sin. How could that mess valuable? Yet I am valued by the King of the Universe. So much so that I am His inheritance. I am valuable to Him. When something is of value you guard it, you care for it. How He has treasured the nation of Israel and how He has treasured me. Oh how He loves us.
I don't know if this will hit anyone else upside the head like it did me. I encourage you to read through Deuteronomy 32 and think of how much you are loved by the Lord almighty. The way He loved and cared for Israel is the way He loves and cares for you. "What God has done in the past is a model and a promise for what He is doing and for what He will do in the future" (Dr. Allman).
He loves us, oh how He loves us.
He loves me, oh how He loves me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJyW55AXJAk
Then Moses goes on to describe us as The Lord's portion. We are His portion: His share, His part, His territory, His own possession, His allotment. We are His inheritance.
I am humbled. When I think of the Lord as my portion I think of Him as my hope, my future, my all. He is everything to me and all I could ever need. The idea that I could be anything like that to Him is overwhelming to me. Me- the Lord's inheritance? No.
Moses follows on in his song to describe how the Lord cared for Jacob. "In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye," (Deut. 32:10). Those are the tender words of how you would care for your inheritance. The rest of the song continues to describe how the Lord cared and protected His portion.
I know that God loves me. I've known that for as long as I can remember. I suppose there is a part of me that knows that with my mind, but somehow looks at His love as an obligation. Something along the lines of "I love you. I just don't like you right now." You can love without longing. You can love without placing true value on the object. That's not how God loves.
Most days I don't feel too loveable. I see my selfishness, my insecurity, my sin. How could that mess valuable? Yet I am valued by the King of the Universe. So much so that I am His inheritance. I am valuable to Him. When something is of value you guard it, you care for it. How He has treasured the nation of Israel and how He has treasured me. Oh how He loves us.
I don't know if this will hit anyone else upside the head like it did me. I encourage you to read through Deuteronomy 32 and think of how much you are loved by the Lord almighty. The way He loved and cared for Israel is the way He loves and cares for you. "What God has done in the past is a model and a promise for what He is doing and for what He will do in the future" (Dr. Allman).
He loves us, oh how He loves us.
He loves me, oh how He loves me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJyW55AXJAk
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